Flags at half-mast in Myanmar

YANGON (Reuters) - Flags across Myanmar flew at half-maston Tuesday for the victims of Cyclone Nargis as diplomatspressed the military government to speed up aid to survivors.

The army declared three days of mourning after a visit by75-year-old junta supremo Than Shwe to the stricken IrrawaddyDelta on Monday, his first since the cyclone struck two weeksago, leaving nearly 134,000 dead or missing.

Diplomats, aid workers and some citizens took it as apossible sign the reclusive leadership had woken up to thescale of the catastrophe and would allow in more internationalaid.

"The old man must have been shocked to see the realsituation with his own eyes," one retired government officialsaid in the former capital Yangon, where torrential rain iscausing more flooding and misery for storm victims.

The bespectacled Senior General, who has run the countrysince 2005 from a bunker in a new capital 250 miles (390 km)north of Yangon, was shown on state-run TV touring hard-hittowns.

The government's toll stands at 77,738 people killed and55,917 missing, although the United Nations says that couldrise dramatically if the 2.4 million people left destitute bythe May 2 cyclone do not get a lot of aid quickly.

Until the last few days, the junta's attention appears tohave been on a May 10 referendum on an army-draftedconstitution that is meant to precede multi-party elections in2010. The vote was postponed to May 24 in areas worst-hit bythe cyclone.

JOINT PLEDGING CONFERENCE

The top general's visit also coincided with moves by theAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of whichMyanmar is a member, and the U.N. to convene a pledgingconference on Sunday in Yangon and work on a bigger aiddelivery plan.

"There are obviously some in the military who see howenormous this is, and how enormously wrong it could go withoutfurther support," one Yangon-based diplomat said.

Across the Southeast Asian country, flags flew at half mastfrom government buildings and a few private buildings amidgrowing criticism for the slow and insufficient measuresmustered by the military.

The New Light of Myanmar, the junta's main mouthpiece,quoted Than Shwe as saying the government "took prompt actionto carry out the relief and rehabilitation work shortly afterthe storm".

The onset of the monsoon season is making life even moremiserable for those in need.

Some donors returning from the worst-hit areas on theoutskirts of Yangon said the authorities were handing outleaflets telling people not to hand over donations directly tovictims, but to do it under their management.

"There were victims waiting in the torrential rains alongthe road for donors to come," one man said.

The leaflets said the handouts may make victims "lazy andmore dependent on others", people who were given them said.

"One young man felt very sad to see what was written in theleaflet," one woman said. "He murmured 'what are we supposed todo if we don't depend on donations in this situation?'."

The diplomatic effort to deliver more aid and expertise haspicked up a little pace, but the World Bank said it could notprovide financial aid to Myanmar because it has made no debtrepayments since 1998.

TOP LEVEL U.N. VISITS

In other moves to persuade the generals that allowing alarge-scale operation was in the best interests of all, theU.N.'s top humanitarian aid official, John Holmes, met PrimeMinister Thein Sein in Myanmar on Tuesday.

Holmes' boss, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, is due inYangon on Thursday.

The United States and France also have naval vesselswaiting in waters near Myanmar ready to deliver supplies.

Although there is little detail of how ASEAN will carry outwhat it called an aid "mechanism", Western governments andrelief groups know it is the only option that might bepalatable to the generals.

Historically the military in the former Burma has beensuspicious of foreign interference. That distrust deepenedsince the wave of international outrage and tighter sanctionsfollowing last year's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.

"We have no choice other than to encourage the regime toopen up because there's no way to force this on them," onehumanitarian official told Reuters.

"It's a face-saving way to get them to admit outside help,but we'll have to wait and see if it works or if it's fudge."

(Additional reporting by Ed Cropley; Writing by GrantMcCool; Editing by Alex Richardson)