"No time to lose" for cyclone-hit Myanmar

YANGON (Reuters) - There was "no time to lose" to help Myanmar's cyclone survivors after the secretive military government promised it would allow in more aid workers, disaster relief officials said on Saturday.

The junta, criticized for stalling a full-blown aid effort for 2.4 million people left destitute by Cyclone Nargis three weeks ago, went ahead on Saturday with a referendum on an army-drafted constitution in cyclone-devastated areas.

Turnout was low in the rice-growing Irrawaddy delta and areas in and around the former capital, Yangon, hit hard by the storm which left 134,000 people dead or missing.

In an apparent breakthrough to ramp up the international aid effort, junta leader Senior General Than Shwe assured U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday that Myanmar would allow in aid experts "of all nationalities".

"We have no more time to lose, so it's imperative that the Myanmar authorities immediately provide the international community with the practical details of the agreement," European Union aid chief Louis Michel said.

Ban, who met Than Shwe in his isolated new capital of Naypyidaw, 250 miles north of Yangon, said afterward he hoped the deal on aid experts "can produce results quickly".

A 39-year-old Burmese aid worker who returned from abroad to help with the aid effort, was skeptical.

"I'm worried that the government is going to tighten the regulations later on because they think they have given in enough," she said.

VOTING IN DISASTER ZONE

In Yangon on Saturday, lines at polling stations were thin as many residents had voted in advance, officials said. Detained opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to vote on Friday at her home where she is under house arrest.

However, Saturday's vote will have little impact on the fate of the charter, which critics say will entrench military rule.

It won 92.4 percent approval in a first-round vote on May 10 in parts of the country unscathed by the cyclone.

One woman said she voted "No" despite a government campaign which told people to back the charter as part of a "roadmap to democracy" leading to elections in 2010.

"I just want them to know that despite everything that they have tried to do, there are still people who will not accept them," the woman said.

In the run-up to Sunday's donor conference in Yangon, Myanmar has said it needs more than $11 billion in pledges, but donors will want to independently assess the damage and needs.

"No country is going to commit to anything until they are in agreement about the facts on the ground," said former British ambassador to Thailand Derek Tonkin, now a Myanmar analyst.

Some 60 countries, U.N. agencies and other bodies will attend the one-day meeting jointly organized by the United Nations and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes Myanmar as one of its 10 members.

U.N. chief Ban, who will attend the Yangon meeting, flew to China on Saturday to show support for victims of the huge earthquake that killed more than 60,000 people, drawing an unspoken comparison with the sluggish aid efforts in Myanmar.

"I'm coming from my visit to Myanmar, where 130,000 people were killed or missing. It was very humbling and very tragic," Ban said in the flattened town of Yingxiu.

Asked if his praise of Chinese leadership was intended as a message to Myanmar's rulers, he told Reuters: "You may have your own interpretation, I just wanted to talk about the facts."

Only a quarter of those in need have been reached in Myanmar and experts fear more will die if they do not receive a steady supply of food, medical care and equipment in the coming months.

The junta has accepted relief flights into Yangon from many countries, including the United States, its fiercest critic, but rejected supplies from U.S., French and British naval ships stationed near the delta.

Supplies and medical teams from several Asian countries have also been allowed in, but many westerners working with humanitarian groups were denied visas or restricted to Yangon.

Meanwhile, despite a general's recent pledge that "all efforts are being made towards the relief of the victims", the authorities are making life more difficult from some survivors.

On the road between Bogalay and Pyapon, police ordered a group of cyclone refugees to dismantle the makeshift huts they had built after fleeing their devastated villages.

"We are afraid of staying in our former villages -- even the dogs are scared when the wind blows," one woman told aid workers.

(Additional reporting by Patrick Worsnip in YINGXIU, China; Writing by Grant McCool; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Bill Tarrant)