The isolationist regime of Burma is deeply suspicious of outsiders. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon hopes to put those suspicions aside for now, arguing that he is not coming to attack the military regime, but only to address overwhelming humanitarian needs.

“The United Nations and all the international community stand ready to help to overcome the tragedy,” Ban said shortly after arriving in the country. “The main purpose of my being here is to demonstrate my solidarity.”

“I’m quite confident we will be able to overcome this tragedy,” Ban told the trustees of the Shwedagon Pagoda, the Buddhist country’s most sacred site. “I’ve tried to bring a message of hope to your people.

Ban met for nearly 1 1/2 hours with Prime Minister Thein Sein as well as with international aid agencies in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, and is to fly by helicopter later in the day to the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta, and is attending a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Thein Sein in the evening. Following Ban into the delta will be representatives of 29 nations, including Japan, Singapore and Thailand, who have been invited to Myanmar by the regime. The group, which includes government officials, aid officials and private-sector donors, will visit the region Friday.

Before talks began, the secretary-general visited Yangon’s Shwedagon pagoda, regarded as the spiritual heart of the country.

“I praise the will, resilience and the courage of the people of Myanmar. I bring a message of hope for the people of Myanmar,” he said as bells chimed at the tranquil, soaring shrine.

Following local tradition, Ban removed his shoes and socks and padded barefoot around the pagoda, handing the shrine’s trustees a donation for cyclone victims.

With Foreign Minister Nyan Win present, Ban said, “I hope your people and government will closely coordinate so that the flow of aid and aid workers’ activities can be carried out in a more systematic way.”

He signed a book of condolences at the foreign ministry and later on Thursday will take a helicopter tour of the stricken villages of the Irrawaddy Delta southwest of the former capital.

The United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, are to convene a donors’ pledging conference in Yangon on Sunday.

The government wants more than $11 billion in aid, but international donors need access to verify the needs, ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan told Reuters.

“Accessibility is important to guarantee confidence and verify the damage and needs, otherwise confidence during pledging will be affected,” he said on Wednesday.

The government’s official toll is 77,738 people killed and 55,917 missing. It also estimates the damage to one of Asia’s least-developed economies at $10 billion.

Ban was to meet Senior General Than Shwe on Friday in Naypyidaw, a new capital 250 miles north of Yangon, where the junta lives in isolation from the rest of the country.

The government has allowed planes to land from several countries carrying emergency supplies, including some from the United States, its fiercest critic. The regime has allowed in 40 aid flights by U.S. military C-130 cargo planes, including four Wednesday.

The first of nine helicopters granted permission by the government to airlift supplies into the delta was due to arrive in Yangon on Thursday, the U.N. World Food Programme said.

“There needs to be more equipment. There needs to be more flights coming in. There needs to more boats out there to reach remote areas,” said Jemilah Mahmood, of the aid agency Mercy Malaysia in Bangkok.