By Patrick Worsnip
NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar (Reuters) - Myanmar's militarygovernment agreed on Friday to allow aid workers into thecountry "regardless of nationalities", a breakthrough fordelivering assistance to cyclone survivors, U.N. chief BanKi-moon said.
The U.N. Secretary-General, on a mission to help 2.4million people left destitute by the storm that struck threeweeks ago, reached the agreement with junta supremo Than Shwein a meeting lasting more than two hours in the remote capitalof Naypyidaw.
Asked by a reporter whether this was a breakthrough, Banreplied: "Yes, I think so, he has agreed to allow all aidworkers regardless of nationalities."
Ban said Than Shwe had also agreed to allow the airport inthe former capital, Yangon, to be used as a logistical hub fordistribution of aid, which is still only trickling in due tothe junta's restrictions on foreign relief operations.
"He has taken quite a flexible position on this matter,"Ban told reporters who travelled with him, a rare concessionfrom the reclusive junta, which is under tougher Westernsanctions for cracking down on pro-democracy protests lastyear.
Disaster experts say that unless the generals open theirdoors, thousands more people in the hard-hit Irrawaddy Deltacould die of hunger and disease from Cyclone Nargis, whichstruck on the night of May 2, leaving nearly 134,000 dead ormissing.
"I urged him that it is crucially important for him toallow these workers as quickly as possible and all this aidrelief should also be delivered to the needy people as quicklyas possible," Ban said.
In the absence of details, one initial reaction from arelief expert to Ban's meeting with the top general wassceptical.
"None of it sounds very different, to be honest," said DanCollison of Save the Children in the Thai capital, Bangkok."Aid workers of many nationalities are already inside Myanmar,but they're stuck in Yangon."
STONY SILENCE
At the start of the meeting, the 75-year-old SeniorGeneral's stony-faced silence gave no clues as to whether hewould overcome deep suspicions of the outside world and grantthe U.N. chief his request.
He was in dark green trousers and a shirt covered withmilitary decorations -- as he was when he emerged this weekfrom Naypyidaw, 250 miles (390 km) north of Yangon, to inspectthe destruction, the army relief effort and to meet survivors.
Ban saw the extent of the disaster for himself on Thursday,flying in a helicopter over flooded rice fields and destroyedhomes in the delta, the former "rice bowl of Asia" that borethe brunt of the storm and its 12 foot (3.5 metre) sea surge.
Government officials told him the situation was undercontrol, repeating a line in army-controlled media that theimmediate emergency relief phase of the disaster was over andit was time to look to reconstruction.
Ban will attend a joint U.N. and Association of SoutheastAsian Nations (ASEAN) donor-pledging conference in Yangon onSunday.
However, ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan saidcountries would be reluctant to commit money until they areallowed in to assess the damage for themselves.
He said the amount "depends on the level of confidence,which will require those factors -- accessibility,participation, and verifiability".
Myanmar, one of ASEAN's 10 members, has accepted reliefflights into Yangon from many countries, including the UnitedStates, its fiercest critic, but has largely kept Westerndisaster experts out of the delta.
However, it has allowed a senior U.S. aid official on athree-day government tour of the area. Washington said thepermission was an "opening, but it is not sufficient".
Medical teams from India, China, Thailand, Laos andBangladesh are working in the delta along with thousands oflocal medics and other volunteers, state media said.
Ban's visit was the talk of Yangon for people desperate forpolitical change after 46 years of unbroken military rule --especially given the U.N.'s abortive attempts to mediate afterSeptember's bloody crackdown on protests led by Buddhist monks.
But people accepted his visit would not stray from itshumanitarian mission.
Sunday's conference coincides with the expiry of the latestyear-long detention order imposed on opposition leader andNobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, under continuous housearrest for five years. Nobody expects her to be released.
(Additional reporting by Ed Cropley and Rob Taylor inBANGKOK; Writing by Grant McCool; Editing by Darren Schuettlerand Alex Richardson)
