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Aid agencies ready to step up Myanmar aid

AP, AFP, Geneva! Bangkok
Aid agencies say they are ready to step up relief to cyclone victims in Myanmar following the announcement ofnew openness by the country.
But UN officials say they need first to know the details of the country's new commitment to admit all aid workers to the devastated coastal area.
UN relief spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs says agencies have been building up food and other supplies for the estimated 2.4 million people affected by the storm.
But she told reporters Friday that she was unable to say immediately how many aid workers would go in. She says the United Nations already has ,abou( ,100. interna-, tiohal staffin Myahmar. ■ •■ ■■
Earlier Friday, UN chief Ban Ki-moon. who is in Myanmar, said the junta agreed to allow "all aid workers" in.
International aid groups reacted cautiously Friday to the announcement that Myanmar would allow all foreign relief workers into the country, stressing that details on the ground were still unclear.
While they welcomed the news following talks between junta leader Than Shwe and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the groups said that the relief effort needed more than simply foreigners flying in to the main city Yangon.
"The important issue is whether we can leave Yangon or not," Paul Risley, spokesman for the UN's World Food Programme, said in neighbouringThailand.
The secretive junta has all but sealed off the southern Irrawaddy Delta hardest hit by the May 2-3 storm, which left at least 133,000 people dead or missing and around 2.5 million in dire need of immediate aid.
Relief organisations have said that outside experts are needed to oversee the complicated disaster management operations, and that until now mostly local staff -- not foreigners -- have been let into the disasterzone.
"We still have to clarify what this means -- who pan got in, whb can go where/’ Said'John Sparrow of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
"Does it mean that the people we have standing by can enter the country? Does it mean we can gear up and go full throttle?" Sparrow said. "It isn't clear right now."
nWe're cautiously optimistic but we have to see how it works in practical terms," said James East, spokesman for Worldvision -- one of dozens of aid groups whose work has been restricted by the Myanmar military regime.
"The debate for the last couple of weeks has been about politics and the politics of humanitarian aid," East told AFP. "Hopefully we've moved beyond that to say: Let'sjusthelp the people."
Making the first visit to Myanmar by a UN secretary general in more four decades, Ban held talks with Than Shwe and later told reporters that he had agreed to let in all foreign aid workers.
"He has agreed to allow all aid workers regardless of nationalities," the UN chief said. Asked if he thought it was a major breakthrough in the three-week standoff, Ban said: "Yes, I think so."
Rebecca Gustafson, a spokeswoman with the US government's relief arm USAID, said the news sounded positive but wanted to know more. 4 w
"Obviously it sounds like, great • news. We just want to know wh'at it means," she said.
The United States and France have naval vessels in nearby waters laden with relief supplies, but Myanmar has refused to let them in -- and it was not immediately clear if that situation would change.
"We have a vast capacity within the US government to assure that that aid gets to people as quickly as possible and we want to make sure we can help do that with the international community," Gustafson