Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej is to travel to Burma on Wednesday, at the request of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, on a mission to persuade Burmese leaders to allow foreign relief workers into the country.

Samak originally planned to go to Burma last week, but cancelled the plan after the regime said it didn’t want outsiders to distribute aid to cyclone survivors.

Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said Samak would make the trip after all following a request by the UN chief, according to a report on the government Public Relations Department website.

Samak visited Burma for the first time as Thai premier in March. Burmese Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein followed up with a visit to Thailand in April.

It is unclear whether Samak will be able to meet the top leadership on this visit.
“I am not sure at this moment who he will meet but we hope to meet Prime Minister Thein Sein and at the very least we do hope to meet the country’s foreign minister,” Noppadon told reporters.

On Tuesday, the Thai cabinet approved aid to Burma worth US $500,000. The Thai Ministry of Public Health is also preparing medical supplies for Burma worth more than $4 million, and arrangements are being made to dispatch 40 medical teams to the cyclone-hit region.

Surveillance has also been tightened along the Thai-Burmese border to guard against outbreaks of endemic diseases.

Thailand’s energy conglomerate, the PTT Public Company Limited, which has invested heavily in Burma, has donated 480,000 liters of petroleum, originally imported from Malaysia, to ease transport and electricity generating problems in Burma.

Several civil societies in Thailand have also organized donation centers to help the victims. One, the Thai Sangha Supreme Council, has donated $100,000 US$.