Geneva - Two years of negotiations havestill failed to secure access to detainees in Myanmar for Red Cross workers, the organization said Tuesday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross had "tried, but to no avail, to overcome the difficulties that prevented it from visiting detainees and working for the benefit of civilians affected by the violence in sensitive border areas," said President Jakob Kellenberger in presenting the ICRC's annual report for 2007.

Speaking at the organization's headquarters in Geneva, Kellenberger said the Red Cross had taken the "exceptional step" in June 2007 of denouncing publicly the Myanmar government's "grave and repeated violations of international humanitarian law."

Elsewhere its neutral and independent humanitarian status had enabled the Red Cross to act as an intermediary in Afghanistan, Colombia, Ethiopia and Niger to secure the release of captured civilians or fighters.

"I deplore the innumerable violations of IHL (International Humanitarian Law) that ICRC delegates witness throughout the world," said Kellenberger.

He added the only way to ensure better compliance, according to studies carried out by the organization, was to penalize perpetrators of violations.

"Much remains to be done by the belligerents and the international community to combat impunity," he said.

According to the report, in 2007, the Red Cross had helped more than 4 million internally displaced people forced to flee their homes owing to violence.

It had provided food relief to 2.5 million people and around 2.8 million people had benefited from sustainable food-production programmes.

Red Cross workers had also visited 2,400 places of detention with more than half a million detainees, more than 36,000 of whom were monitored independently.

Darfur in Sudan remained the biggest operation for the Red Cross costing 78 million dollars. This was followed by Iraq (63.6), Israel and the Palestinian territories (51) and Afghanistan (41.3). Its total budget in the field was almost 698 million. (dpa)