The military rulers of Myanmar have held a referendum and turned cyclone relief efforts into a propaganda campaign.

Despite international appeals to postpone the constitutional referendum, voting began Saturday in all but the hardest hit parts of the country.

With the generals trying to keep their hold on power in the country, in some voting areas they had written their names onto boxes of foreign aid, which were only distributed following the vote.

Long lines formed in front of government centres, where small rations of rice and oil were being handed out.

Human rights organizations and dissident groups have bitterly accused the junta of neglecting disaster victims in going ahead with the vote, which seeks public approval of a new constitution.

Myanmar has been ruled by military regimes since 1962.

The current junta seized power in 1988, throwing out the country's last constitution.

The referendum seeks public approval of a new one, which the generals say will be followed in 2010 by a general election.

But the proposed constitution guarantees 25 percent of parliamentary seats to the military and allows the president to hand over all power to the military in a state of emergency.

It also would bar Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained leader of the country's pro-democracy movement, from public office.

The military refused to honour the results of the 1990 general election which was won by her National League for Democracy party.

The referendum has come just one week after Cyclone Nargis left more than 60,000 people dead or missing in Myanmar.