Aid workers ready for action after Myanmar promise

Yangon: Foreign aid workers were heading for the cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy delta on Monday to see whether army-ruled Myanmar will honour a promise made by its top general to give them freedom of movement.

One official from a major Western relief said, "We're going to head out today and test the boundaries," shortly before his departure for a region that has been off-limits to nearly all foreigners since the May 2 cyclone.

Donors pledged nearly $50 million in aid on Sunday but Western countries said much of the cash would be contingent on access to the delta, where 134,000 people are dead or missing and another 2.4 million clinging to survival.

Besides denying and delaying visas to aid officials, military checkpoints on roads leading out of Yangon have prevented all but a handful leaving the former capital.

However, junta supremo Than Shwe promised visiting United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week that all aid officials and disaster assessment teams would be allowed in "regardless of nationalities".

Washington told the Yangon conference it was ready to raise its offer of $20.5 million in aid if the junta opened up, but added it was "dismayed" the generals went ahead with a constitutional referendum in the middle of the disaster.