International aid workers arrive in Burma's delta
Updated
![International aid workers have finally been allowed to access Burma's Irrawaddy delta. [AFP]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/base/burma_cyclone_afp_130508.jpg "International aid workers have finally been allowed to access Burma's Irrawaddy delta. [AFP]")
International aid workers have finally been allowed to access Burma's Irrawaddy delta. [AFP]
Foreign aid workers have started to visit Burma's Irrawaddy delta for the first time since it was struck by a cyclone, more than three weeks ago.
But Burma's military leaders are now demanding that aid agencies register their activities.
Over the weekend a number of expatriate aid workers, including some Australians, were finally able to leave Rangoon and reach those in need.
It comes after an agreement between the United Nations and Burma's senior leaders on Friday.
But during a conference with international donor countries in the capital on Sunday, the junta demanded that agencies now have to prove that they and their staff are engaged in genuinely humanitarian work.
Australia has already committed $US24 million, and is bringing two United Nations helicopters to Thailand from South Africa, which will be used by the World Food Programme.
France gives up on effort
France has given up trying to deliver a shipload of aid to victims of the Burmese cyclone.
After weeks of resistance Burma has agreed to accept foreign aid workers, but rejected aid from foreign military ships, despite the scope of the tragedy.
Instead, Paris has redirected the military ship with 1,000 tonnes of aid for the battered Irrawaddy delta to Thailand to be handed to the World Food Programme for distribution.
In a joint statement, France's defence and foreign ministries said nothing can justify the victims of a catastrophe being denied the basic right to aid.
The ship, the Mistral, had been poised near the delta to deliver enough aid to help 100,000 people.
Meanwhile, international donors met in Burma on Sunday to press the country's military leaders to lift the restrictions on getting foreign aid to the victims.
Britain's international development minister, Douglas Alexander, was at the meeting and says the Burmese generals need to follow through with their promises.
The United States is calling for unhindered access to the worst hit areas as a condition of granting more aid.
