By DAVID STRINGER, AP
Posted: 2008-05-19 14:56:34

Speaking in London after weekend talks in Myanmar, British Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown said Western nations will support efforts by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to lead the aid effort in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.

An emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the 10 ASEAN countries agreed Monday to facilitate the distribution of relief and to work with the United Nations to hold an aid donors conference on May 25.

Malloch-Brown said Myanmar, which has been suspicious of allowing Western aid workers into the country, appeared likely to be more trusting of its neighbors.

“We really do hope that we can get the ASEAN ambition quickly up to the scale of the problem,” Malloch-Brown said. “The meeting is good news, but it is the beginning of a process and they have got lots of challenges on the road ahead.”

He said Britain and others must remain ready to change approach if the tactic doesn’t work quickly, or if there is any outbreak of disease among survivors in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

The West “can’t afford for this to get snagged up and snared up in Burmese delays or anything else. It has got to deliver quickly, given the crisis needs of the people involved.”

The minister said there was an air of unreality within the Myanmar regime over the scale of the humanitarian crisis

“One of the most striking issues I found in Burma at the weekend is the completely contrarian views of the size of the crisis between the international community and the Burmese themselves,” Malloch-Brown said.

He said Myanmar ministers insisted the country needs help only with its recovery, requesting plows, pumps to desalinate paddy fields and boats to resume fishing.

Aid agencies estimate the cyclone has left an estimated 130,000 people dead or missing and up to 2.5 million survivors faced with hunger and disease.

However, Malloch-Brown acknowledged the Myanmar regime is in a better position to assess the impact of the cyclone, which struck two weeks ago.

He said a detailed field study listing exactly what help is needed must be carried out before an aid donor conference in Yangon next Monday.