U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon will meet on Friday Myanmar's military ruler Senior General Than Shwe.

- 21 / 05 / 2008 17:21

Ban headed to southeast Asia on Wednesday on a mission to secure more help for cyclone victims in Myanmar.  

"That should be a very important meeting," Holmes told reporters in Bangkok on Wednesday after a visit to Myanmar to inspect the destruction left by Cyclone Nargis on May 2.

Than Shwe, who took two weeks after the disaster to meet victims and see the destruction for himself, had declined to take 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 realize 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 U.N. says up to 2.4 million people are struggling to survive in Yangon and the Irrawaddy Delta, where refugees from the storm have been begging for food from relief workers.

Yangon-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".

The U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP) said the first of nine helicopters granted permission to airlift supplies into the delta would arrive in Yangon on Thursday.

Reuters