UNITED NATIONS, May 16 (Xinhua) -- A top United Nations relief official will arrive in Myanmar on Sunday to talk directly with the authorities of the country in an effort to accelerate the relief efforts for victims of Cyclone Nargis, which had killed about 78,000, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said here on Friday.

    Ban said at an informal session of the General Assembly that hehad asked Special Coordinator John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, to visit Myanmar this weekend.

    "He will deliver a third letter from me and attempt to establish contact with the Myanmar leadership with a view toward discussing how the UN can assist the government's immediate and longer term relief effort," the UN chief added.

    "The situation in Myanmar is particularly acute due to the country's limited capacity to respond to a tragedy of such magnitude," the Secretary-General said, adding, "more than two weeks after the event, we are at a critical point."

    He also said that he would remain in close contact with regional leaders and hope that the meeting of ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) Foreign Ministers on May 19 and a further high-level pledging conference that he had proposed for May 24 or 25 would help mobilize resources in response to this unprecedented crisis for Myanmar.

    UN aid officials say that there has been some slow progress in getting relief supplies and humanitarian workers into the most affected areas across the Irrawaddy Delta in the south of Myanmar, and that the government has shown some signs of flexibility, but more is needed.

    Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Michele Montas told a noon briefing at the UN headquarters Friday that a third plane from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reached Yangon Thursday, carrying 40 tons of aid supplies from its stock in Dubai.

    The goods were distributed late Thursday evening and Friday to UNHCR's humanitarian partners and those partners are now continuing the distribution of those supplies to as many as 5,000 families in the Irrawaddy Delta, she said.

    She also said that a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) team had reached the remote areas of Myanmar where "the situation was dire for children."

    "More than 70 UNICEF assessment and relief missions are in the region, distributing essential survival kits, including plastic sheeting for shelter, water purification materials, medicines, mosquito nets, and cooking materials," Montas said, adding that the UNICEF had warned that children who survived the cyclone were now facing an increasing risk of disease.

    "Unless more aid gets into the country - quickly - we face the risk of an outbreak of infectious diseases that could dramatically worsen today's crisis," Ban Ki-moon stressed.

    "I want to emphasize that this is not the time for politics. Our concern right now is to save lives -- to help the government of Myanmar and its people," Ban said.

    "There is no more time to lose," he said.