Putra 1Malaysia Club's humanitarian aid mission will set off for Burma on Royal Malaysian Navy ship KD Sri Indera Sakti next week bringing along 480 tonnes of essential items and logistics support.

Its president Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim said they were scheduled to depart on Sept 1 but the journey was held up pending clearance from Burma.

He said he recently met with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak who gave the assurance that he would help expedite approval from Burma.

Azeez, who is also Umno supreme souncil member, said the 480-tonne cargo worth RM9.67 million was collected within eight days from Malaysians of different races and religion.  

"The contributions were not only from Muslims, hence we will not only be distributing to the Muslims among the Rohingya community but also to non-Muslims," he told reporters yesterday after launching the Bagan Umno delegates meeting today.

- Bernama