Ban Ki-moon to meet Burma leader

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UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to meet with Burma's military leader, Gen Than Shwe, after touring cyclone-hit areas of the country.

On a tour of the Irrawaddy Delta, Mr Ban flew over flooded rice fields and destroyed villages and visited a relief camp set up by the government.

Mr Ban said his mission was to urge the Burma's rulers to accept more aid.

About 78,000 people have died and another 56,000 are missing from Cyclone Nargis which struck on 2 May.

'Show camp'

"I am so sorry, but don't lose your hope," Mr Ban told a woman at the Kyonday relief camp in the Irrawaddy Delta.

A UN official privately called it a "show camp", says the BBC's Laura Trevelyan, in Burma with the secretary general.

"The United Nations is here to help you. The whole world is trying to save Myanmar [Burma]," Mr Ban said, looking into her blue tent.

Mr Ban told reporters he was "very upset" by the devastation he had seen.


"Many human lives have been lost, houses are destroyed, roads and streets are washed away, and all rice paddies flooded with water. I'm very much concerned. These farmers may lose their planting season," he said.

But in a meeting earlier with Burma's Prime Minister Thein Sein, Mr Ban was told that the relief phase of the aid operation was over and that the government was now focusing on reconstruction, a UN official said.

Mr Ban told the prime minister that the disaster was beyond Burma's ability to handle on its own and that foreign aid experts should be rushed javascript:void(0)
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"The United Nations and all the international community stand ready to help to overcome the tragedy," Mr Ban is quoted as saying.
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