Britain is to more than double its aid to victims of repression inside Burma , the Government said yesterday, in a move certain to anger the dictatorship.

The military junta, regularly rated as one of the worst regimes in the world, has been engaged in a major offensive in Karen state for two years, emptying villages to deny rebels of the ethnic minority Karen National Liberation Army popular support. Tens of thousands of people have been forced from their homes, with around 3,000 moving to a makeshift refugee camp next to the border with Thailand .

The Department for International Development (DFID) said it would give £400,000 this year to Burmese community groups working with internally displaced people on the edges of conflict areas, up from £200,000 last year. For the first time, it will also allow DFID-funded organisations based in Thailand to use its money across the frontier.

Campaigners believe the extra cash would be better directed entirely at cross-border groups. "There are thousands of people who can't be reached from inside the country, particularly in conflict areas," said Anna Roberts, the acting director of the Burma Campaign UK . Nonetheless, the move is sure to fuel the junta's ire against Britain , which it blames for the country's woes despite it becoming independent in 1948.

The move was welcomed by Andrew Mitchell, the shadow international development secretary, who recently visited Burma . While there he told the deputy foreign minister U Kyaw Thu that his country was a "pariah state" and that his fellow ministers were "bad and wicked".