ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

JAKARTA, June 17, 2008 (AFP) - The World Bank has handed 850,000 dollars to an Association of Southeast Asian Nations team working to assess the impact of Myanmar's cyclone Nargis, ASEAN said Tuesday.

The cash will go to ASEAN's Emergency Rapid Assessment team, which was sent into the devastated Irrawaddy Delta region early this month to gauge the damage, the regional grouping said in a press release.

The Bank money would be spent on "the coordination of international response and senior-level dialogue on recovery planning as well as (the) training of ASEAN technical staff in damage and loss assessment," it said.

ASEAN has come under fire for taking a soft approach to Myanmar's military junta, but has had more success than most international organisations in gaining access to the country.

The deployment of the ASEAN team earlier this month came a day after the United States gave up trying to convince the junta to allow aid-laden warships stationed off the delta to deliver their vital supplies.

Cyclone Nargis pounded the southwest Irrawaddy Delta and the main city of Yangon on May 2-3, leaving more than 133,000 people dead or missing.

The United Nations estimates that while 2.4 million people need emergency aid, about one million have not yet received any foreign assistance.