U.N. chief going to Myanmar

YANGON (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon willtravel to Myanmar this week to discuss the troubled cyclone aidoperations, his spokeswoman said on Sunday, as signs of abreakthrough on the issue mounted.

Ban's spokeswoman Michele Montas also said she expectedthere would be a conference in Bangkok on May 24 to marshalfunds for the relief effort.

"I can confirm he (Ban) is going to Myanmar this week," shesaid by telephone, adding he was expected to arrive byWednesday or Thursday.

Britain's Asia minister said a turning point could be nearon a framework to accelerate international aid to the millionsneeding help after Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar'sIrrawaddy delta early this month.

Than Shwe, the reclusive leader of Myanmar's militaryjunta, made a public appearance on Sunday for the first time inrelation to the cyclone aid effort.

Aid has been trickling in for the up to 2.5 million peopleaffected by the cyclone. Myanmar's military rulers, suspiciousof the outside world, have been reluctant to admit majorforeign operations and the workers to run them.

But Britain's Asia minister, Mark Malloch-Brown, said aframework was being set up for a U.N.- and Asian-led systemthat could solve the impasse and make it easier to channel inaid.

TURNING POINT

"I think we're potentially at a turning point but, like allturning points in (Myanmar), the corner will have a few 'S'bends in it," he told Reuters in an interview.

Later Myanmar state television showed Than Shwe meeting inYangon with ministers involved in the rescue effort, andtouring some cyclone-hit areas in the immediate vicinity.

The generals moved the country's capital to Naypyidaw, 400km (250 miles) north from Yangon, the former Rangoon, in 2005,and Than Shwe has rarely been seen in public since.

The United Nations' chief humanitarian officer, JohnHolmes, arrived in Yangon on Sunday night, and was expected todeliver a message from Ban to the generals.

Ban had previously proposed a "high-level pledgingconference" to deal with the crisis, as well as having a jointcoordinator from the U.N. and ASEAN to oversee aid delivery.

Than Shwe had refused to talk to Ban on the phone since thecyclone. But analysts speculated his appearance in Yangon meanthe was likely to meet Holmes, or possibly Ban later in theweek.

Thousands of children could die within weeks if food doesnot get to them soon, the aid organisation Save the Childrensaid on Sunday.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said separately that it hadmanaged to get rice and beans to 212,000 of the 750,000 peopleit thinks are most in need after the May 2 storm, which left atleast 134,000 dead or missing.

Malloch-Brown said the United Nations estimated that helphad so far reached fewer than 25 percent of the people in need.

But now, he said, "I'm confident we've got movement here inthe sense we've diplomatically found an answer to thestand-off".

HISTORIC DISASTER

In the last 50 years, only two Asian cyclones have exceededthe human cost of Nargis -- a 1970 storm that killed 500,000people in neighbouring Bangladesh, and another that killed143,000 in 1991, also in Bangladesh.

If the reclusive military government does not open itsdoors to a large-scale tsunami-style aid operation, disasterexperts say Nargis's body count could still climb dramatically.

Malloch-Brown came to Yangon after first visiting somemembers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

He said the Asian/U.N.-led process had already begun, withAsian nations considered friendly by Myanmar sending aid teamsin, and an ASEAN assessment team on the ground.

That team will report to a meeting of foreign ministersfrom ASEAN, of which Myanmar is a member, in Singapore onMonday. Other countries would make their contributions throughthis channel, he said.

Despite his optimism about a possible breakthrough,Malloch-Brown said that, because of Myanmar's suspicions of theoutside, operations were still unlikely to involve foreign aidworker numbers comparable to other recent disasters in Asia.

The reluctance of the Myanmar military, which has ruled forthe last 46 years, to allow a foreign aid worker influx appearsto stem from fear of losing its vice-like grip on power.