May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Myanmar's junta will grant entry to international aid workers for relief operations in areas devastated by a cyclone three weeks ago, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, after talks with military chief Senior General Than Shwe.

``He has agreed to allow all aid workers regardless of nationalities,'' Ban told reporters in the capital, Naypyidaw, according to the UN delegation. ``He has taken quite a flexible position on this matter.''

The military leader also agreed to allow the airport in the former capital, Yangon, to be used to distribute international aid, Ban said.

More than 130,000 people are dead or missing after Cyclone Nargis hit the southern rice-growing Irrawaddy River delta, sweeping away villages, crops and livestock. The military, which has run the nation of 48 million since 1962, barred international workers from the worst-affected areas and rejected offers of helicopters, trucks and aid from U.S. and other Western warships anchored offshore.

In a news conference today, Ban said the military agreed to allow shipments to be delivered by ``civilian ships and small boats,'' the Associated Press reported.

``Once again the Burmese junta is making the wrong decision,'' French President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters during a visit to Luanda, Angola. ``It's pathetic to see a government refuse other nations coming to the rescue of a population which is suffering so much.''

Aid-Transfer Plan

France may transfer the 1,500 tons of aid equipment by helicopter or send its military transport ship to the nearest Thai harbor, where the aid could be transferred to civilian ships, Sarkozy said.

The agreement on aid workers ``is going to help with our operation enormously,'' UN World Food Program country director Chris Kaye said by telephone from Yangon.

``We understand that they are going to be allowed to work in the delta,'' Kaye said. The agreement will help the WFP ``ramp up the scale of operations,'' he added.

Ban arrived in the country formerly known as Burma yesterday to press the junta to grant international workers access to the delta and accept more aid.

``This is a significant step forward, and could be a turning point in the aid response,'' Brian Agland, CARE's country director in Myanmar, said in an e-mailed statement today.

Agland and other leaders of aid organizations will meet with Ban tomorrow to plan coordination of the relief effort.

U.S. Visas

The U.S. is still waiting for approval from the junta for visa requests to allow its Disaster Assistance Response Team, or DART, into Myanmar to assess the damage and coordinate aid, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said today. The team is waiting in Bangkok, he said.

The head of the team, William Berger, was allowed in two days ago for a briefing and a tour of the affected region, though his coworkers still don't have visas and he wasn't allowed to conduct his own assessment, Casey said.

``Seeing is believing,'' Casey told reporters in Washington of the regime's decision to allow entry for aid workers. ``We certainly will continue to test that by pushing for visas for our DART team, among others, and hopefully we'll see a change in behavior.''

The U.S. also wants to use the helicopters and ships it has available to deliver more aid, he said.

Relief Shipments

Myanmar authorities haven't given permission for the U.S. to increase its relief shipment flights into the country, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

The military government has been allowing five C-130 flights a day, Whitman said at a briefing in the Pentagon today. The U.S. could quickly increase the tempo of aid shipments if Myanmar decides to allow more, he said.

The U.S. has made a total of 50 relief flights to Myanmar since the cyclone struck, bringing in a total of 444 metric tons of aid, Whitman said.

The junta estimates the cyclone may have caused $10.7 billion in damage to property and affected 5.5 million people, Ramesh Shrestha, the UN Children's Fund representative for Myanmar, said yesterday after meeting with U Soe Tha, the country's development minister.

Delegates from 31 countries have registered to attend a May 25 donor conference in Yangon sponsored by the UN and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. While the international community wants to focus on improving the aid effort, the ruling generals want money for reconstruction.

Human Rights

The donor conference is scheduled as the junta faces renewed pressure to release Aung San Suu Kyi.

The opposition leader, whose National League for Democracy won elections in 1990 that were rejected by the junta, has spent 12 of the past 18 years in detention and has been under house arrest at her home in Yangon since May 2003.

Pro-democracy campaigners are demanding that Suu Kyi, 62, be freed this month, saying the junta's legal authority to detain her will expire. Under the State Protection Law, the regime can hold someone deemed a security threat only for five years without trial or charge, according to the Burma Campaign U.K.

``Ban Ki-moon must meet with Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD leaders whilst he is in Burma,'' said campaign director Mark Farmaner in a statement. ``The UN failed to take action that the people of Burma called for to help restore democracy. Now the regime they left in power is killing thousands more through the denial of aid.''

The junta will hold a referendum on a draft constitution tomorrow in the areas worst hit by the cyclone, two weeks after the rest of the country voted. The charter was approved by 92.4 percent of voters with a 99 percent turnout on May 10, according to state media.

The junta says the referendum will pave the way for elections in 2010. The U.S. and opposition groups in Myanmar say the ballot was rigged and accuse the generals of trying to prolong their reign.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 23, 2008 13:41 EDT