Donor nations say they are ready to provide Burma with more than $100m (€63m) to help it recover from Cyclone Nargis, but are warning its ruling junta they will not fully open their wallets until they are given access to the hardest-hit areas.

Burma’s ruling junta has agreed to allow “all aid workers” into the country to help cyclone survivors, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said today.

International aid began to trickle into Burma, but the stricken Irrawaddy delta, the nation’s rice bowl where 22,000 people perished and twice as many are missing, remained cut off from the world.