UN to resume aid flights to Burma

The United Nations said this evening it would resume aid flights to cyclone-struck Burma despite the military government's seizure…

The United Nations said this evening it would resume aid flights to cyclone-struck Burma despite the military government's seizure of food supplies earlier today.

The ruling military junta has also approved one US aid flight.

The UN World Food Programme initially said it was suspending flights after Burma impounded food shipments for survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which has killed tens of thousands of people and left an estimated 1.5 million needing food, water and shelter.

The junta has had little direct contact with the outside world, but stated its preference through state-run media to accept "relief in cash and kind" but not foreign aid workers, many of whom are waiting for visas in the Thai capital, Bangkok.

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Burma's envoy to the UN said the country will accept aid "from any quarter" and confirmed that the country has approved a US flight bringing relief supplies.

However a team of US disaster aid experts has not yet been granted visas.

Speaking to UN ambassadors after the launch of an appeal for $187 million (96 million pounds) for cyclone aid, Burma's ambassador, Kyaw Tint Swe, said a deputy minister had met the US charge d'affaires in Yangon and confirmed US aid was welcome.

He said he understood the first US C-130 cargo flight would arrive as soon as Monday.

The world has been frustrated by delays getting aid in, nearly a week after the cyclone hit.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged Burma's generals to accept aid and humanitarian workers "without hindrance," saying the survival of the country's people was at stake.

He said he had so far not been able to contact Myanmar's senior general, Than Shwe, to ask him in person to remove restrictions on aid workers.

"I am still trying to talk with them (the generals) as well as with leaders in neighbouring countries," Ban told reporters during a visit to the Carter Center in Atlanta.