ASEAN aid team moves into Myanmar cyclone zone

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JAKARTA, June 5 (AFP): A 200-strong team of aid experts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations (UN) started deploying in Myanmar's cyclone-hit Irrawaddy delta Thursday, ASEAN said.

The Emergency Rapid Assessment Team was "now ready to move into the cyclone stricken remote delta areas" to start a long-awaited examination of the needs of millions of people affected by the May 2- 3 storm, ASEAN said in a statement.

"We will begin with two advance teams being ferried by the World Food Programme's helicopter to two main townships of Labutta and Pyapon," ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said.

The move comes a day after the United States gave up trying to convince the Myanmar junta to allow aid-laden warships stationed off the devastated southern delta to deliver their vital supplies.

Cyclone Nargis left more than 133,000 people dead or missing when it smashed into the country formally known as Burma, but the secretive military regime has severely limited the access of foreign relief workers.