United Nations Radio

UN agencies say they are ready to step up relief aid for the victims of cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, following a breakthrough agreement by the government to let in all foreign aid workers.

This was announced by the UN Secretary-General following his meeting today with Myanmar's Senior General Than Shwe, in the capital Naypyidaw. But as the spokesperson for the UN Humanitarian Coordination office, Elizabeth Byrs, explains, the agencies are waiting for more details of this new commitment by Myanmar.

"We do not have yet the details of what the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon just announced. We have to wait for more practical details, to know the procedure, to know all the implications."

Until now the Myanmar government has limited the number of visas for foreign aid workers and the one hundred or so UN experts allowed in the country have been restricted to the city of Yangon. They have been building up supplies and other relief items in a warehouse in Yangon along with a fleet of 30 trucks, four barges and two boats. Ms. Byrs says more inflatable boats are needed to reach the hundreds of small islands, some natural and some created by the floods after the cyclone, where many people are still stranded and in desperate need of assistance.

Reporting for UN Radio, I'm Bissera Kostova.

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