UN chief to meet Burma junta

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon is to meet Burma's Senior General Than Shwe to attempt to secure more aid in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.

UN humanitarian envoy John Holmes said the "very important meeting" would probably be in Naypyidaw, the new capital in central Burma 250 miles (390 km) north of Rangoon.

Than Shwe, who took two weeks after the disaster to meet victims and see the destruction for himself, had declined to take Mr Ban's phone calls earlier in the recovery effort.

Diplomats say his appearances in public in recent days could be a sign the top brass realise the enormity of the destruction and rebuilding from Nargis, one of the worst cyclones to hit Asia with nearly 134,000 people dead or missing.

The UN says up to 2.4 million people are struggling to survive in Rangoon and the Irrawaddy Delta, where refugees from the storm have been begging for food from relief workers.

Rangoon-based volunteer Ko Kyaw Khine said authorities in a village he visited on Tuesday used loudspeakers on trucks to tell people not to wait at the roadside because "begging from the donors tarnishes the dignity of the nation".

Meanwhile the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said the first of nine helicopters granted permission to airlift supplies into the delta would arrive in Rangoon on Thursday.

Spokesman Marcus Prior said in Bangkok: "These helicopters will provide critical life-saving capacity to bring urgently needed relief supplies to cyclone victims deep in the delta."

However, private citizens who have been doling out aid on the ground in the delta, where torrential rains are compounding flooding from the cyclone, fretted about where they might land.

Ko Myo Win, a volunteer, said: "The entire village was in the mud. There was not any hard soil to use as a helipad".

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