"No time to lose" for cyclone-hit Myanmar

By Aung Hla Tun

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.