Fresh humanitarian aid to Burma will depend on whether the military regime keeps its promise to allow foreign aid workers into the stricken regions of the Irrawaddy delta, Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary, told The Times yesterday.

He was speaking in Rangoon at an international conference intended to break the deadlock over access to the 2.4 million survivors of Cyclone Nargis, and to agree on funding for an enlarged aid operation.

Mr Alexander, with other European and American delegates, insisted that this would be conditional on permission for foreign aid workers to visit freely the disaster zone, two weeks after they were ordered out by the Government.

“Further support will be directly affected by decisions made by the regime on access,” Mr Alexander said after the hastily arranged meeting, which was attended by 500 delegates from 50 countries. “The world will be watching closely . . . Ultimately these are matters that will be judged on the difference that it makes to the people in the areas affected by the cyclone who, three weeks on, are not receiving the aid and the support they so desperately need.”

On Friday Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary-General of the UN, announced that Than Shwe, Burma’s Senior General, had agreed to admit foreign aid workers of all nationalities – a promise that met with surprise and scepticism from aid workers and diplomats.

That undertaking was repeated yesterday by General Thein Sein, the Burmese Prime Minister. Most long-term observers of Burma find it difficult to believe that the regime has executed a U-turn, given its bad faith over the years.

Over the weekend the Government held the second part of a widely derided referendum on a new constitution that is intended to introduce a militarised form of democratic rule in 2010. In the first round of the referendum, in areas unaffected by the cyclone, the Government claimed an unbelievable turnout of 99 per cent and a yes vote of 92.4 per cent.

Postponed voting was held on Saturday in the cyclone-stricken Rangoon and Irrawaddy divisions. Several polling stations appeared almost deserted, and there were consistent reports of impropriety, including local officials soliciting advanced votes from voters at their homes – but whatever the outcome in the cyclone areas, it cannot alter the overall result.

This week is also the fifth anniversary of the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, whose victory in democratic elections in 1990 has never been recognised by the military government. Under Burmese law five years is the maximum period of house arrest – but the Government is expected either to find a new pretext for a fresh period of detention or to ignore its own laws altogether.

The anniversary would normally be an occasion for renewed international statements in support of her by Western governments. The cabinet ministers and senior officials at yesterday’s meeting were silent on the matter out of fear that denunciations of the regime would jeopardise fragile hopes for increased access to the cyclone victims.

Burma has said that relief and reconstruction in the Irrawaddy delta will cost $10.7 billion (£5.4 billion). A Burmese minister presented a detailed account of the losses inflicted by the cyclone, including 1,614,502 chickens, 665,271 ducks, 68,092 pigs, 56,163 cows, 117,125 buffalo and 7,166 sheep or goats, 35,051 acres of fish ponds and 1.007 million eggs.

“For those groups who are interested in rehabilitation and reconstruction, my Government is ready to accept them, in accordance with our priorities and the extent of work that needs to be done,” General Thein Sein said.

“We would warmly welcome any assistance and aid which are provided with genuine goodwill from any country or organisation, provided that there are no strings attached.”

Ban Ki Moon and representatives of the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations, which co-hosted the conference with the UN, warned against “politicisation” of cyclone aid.

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