Yangon:  Foreign aid workers today pressed into Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta, testing the junta s pledge to open up areas where one million people have yet to receive aid three weeks after the cyclone.

Small groups of international experts, together with much larger teams of Myanmar workers, headed into the region to assess the scale of the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis, which left 133,000 dead or missing.

The vast majority of people still waiting for aid live in the delta, which the spokeswoman for the UN's disaster response agency called a "logistic nightmare" where "some places are only reachable by inflatable boats."

"We are going in the right direction, but we still need to scale up our efforts. Now with the new openness of the government, we hope to do it as soon as possible in the coming weeks," spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva.

Myanmar had blocked most foreigners from the delta for weeks after the storm, but aid agencies said the regime appears to be showing greater willingness to allow a full-scale relief effort.

The Southeast Asian regional bloc ASEAN said it would work to facilitate the flow of aid by creating a new panel with the junta and the United Nations that will be tasked with clearing any bureaucratic obstacles.

"There's been sort of a progressive opening up," said Chris Webster, a member of Save the Children s emergency response team who is awaiting a visa in Bangkok.

"It used to take weeks to get visas and travel permissions. The fact that we're getting indications that it could take days is great progress. It does seem as if things are moving."

Source : PTI