The top United Nations aid official will visit Burma soon to see if he can pressure the ruling generals to speed up the relief effort for survivors of Cyclone Nargis.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes was assigned by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to monitor the relief effort.
"He is planning to visit the region, sometime in the next couple of days," said Amanda Pitt, Regional Public Information and Advocacy Officer for the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
"I am sure he'll be looking to try to meet with all the available officials to try and improve the rate of response we're getting for the cyclone," Pitt said. "But I'm afraid I don't have any details of his schedule and we don't even know exactly yet what day he will be arriving."
Ban Ki-moon has expressed his frustration at Burmese authorities for their slow response in allowing international aid and foreign disaster experts into the country.
The UN office in Rangoon could not confirm when Holmes would arrive.
UN Spokesman Aye Win said 21 UN aid workers have now arrived since the cyclone, adding to an international staff of 109.
"They are still coming in, but I don't know whether the NGOs and their outside staff got visas or not," said Aye Win.
However, none of the UN's foreign aid workers have been allowed to visit the Irrawaddy delta. Only a few international staff from NGOs are working there, the spokesman said.
But aid is reaching desperate survivors. "The aid is still flowing to the Irrawaddy delta from UN agencies," Aye Win said. "The World Food Programme alone has sent at least 700 tons of rice."
The official death toll was raised to 38,000, according to state media, with more than 20,000 missing. But aid agencies have estimated at least 100,000 are dead and more than 2 million affected by the cyclone.
European Union aid commissioner Louis Michel also arrived in Burma to negotiate with the Burmese government.
Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, who is on friendly terms with the Burmese junta, failed in his visit to pry open the reclusive generals to allow in more foreign workers. But the military accepted a Thai medical team for the first time. Thirty medical personnel from the Thai government were expected to arrive in Burma by the end of the week.
