UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said on Wednesday he would visit Myanmar next week to check on aid delivery to the isolated country that initially shut out foreign relief workers after a deadly cyclone in May.
Holmes told a news conference he would spend three days inMyanmar after a meeting in Singapore with officials of theAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Monday toassess the situation after the cyclone.
He said he would visit the Irrawaddy Delta, the area worsthit when Cyclone Nargis struck on May 2-3, leaving an estimated138,000 people dead or missing. He also hoped to meet PrimeMinister Thein Sein.
The United Nations appealed last week for more than $300million (150 million pounds) in additional aid for Myanmar, ontop of $178 million already provided by donors.
Myanmar's secretive military government lifted restrictionson foreign aid workers after a visit in late May by U.N.Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Holmes, who accompanied Ban, ismaking his first visit to the country since then.
Holmes said he wanted to "reassess the situation formyself."
"The problems are not entirely disappeared but certainlycontainable for the moment," he said. "But we want to make surethey stay that way."
The United Nations said on Tuesday that Myanmar had invitedBan's special representative for the country, Ibrahim Gambari,to visit NEXT (NXT.LO)month. Gambari, seeking to promote democracy inMyanmar, will be making his fourth visit since the ruling juntacracked down on monk-led protests last September.
(Reporting by Patrick Worsnip; Editing by John O'Callaghan)
