YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar began three days of mourning for some 78,000 cyclone victims Tuesday, after its ruling junta appeared to relent to foreign pressure to allow more outside help for its storm survivors.

Flags at government offices, schools and large hotels were lowered to half staff to mourn for people killed by Cyclone Nargis on May 2-3. But there was no period of silence, shops were open as usual and many people in Yangon said they had little idea of what the government-announced mourning entailed.

The mourning began a day after junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe met storm victims in the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta and declared that the regime had "promptly carried out rescue and rehabilitation tasks," according to state-owned media.

The general said the government, which has said it has spent more than $45.5 million on its relief operations, had met immediate needs such as food, shelter and health care and was now moving into the reconstruction phase.

But his assessment contrasted with ones from foreign aid agencies and the United Nations, which said that only some 500,000 of the 2.4 million storm victims have received some form of international assistance.

"It is clear that the emergency phase is set to continue for some time," the United Nations said.

And the regime did agree on Monday to allow its Asian neighbors to oversee the distribution of foreign relief to cyclone survivors.

It also approved a visit by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and prepared to host a meeting of aid donors, while saying that losses from the May 2-3 disaster exceeded $10 billion.

Conditions in the hard-hit low-lying delta, remain precarious for the survivors, who face disease, malnutrition and exposure to the elements. The official death toll for the storm stands at about 78,000, with another 56,000 people missing.

Heavy rain fell on the delta again Monday, said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, noting that such weather can have the benefit of providing clean water for those able to catch the downpour with plastic sheeting.

"However, the rain for many others simply adds to the misery as they look forward to their 18th night in often wretched conditions," said the IFRC in a situation report. "In addition, access to already relatively inaccessible locations is set to remain very difficult."

The IFRC remained concerned about the distribution of relief supplies, saying "Reports indicate that in most of the bigger affected townships, basic relief and food is available but much less so in the more remote areas."

In Singapore, an emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed to set up a task force for distributing foreign aid.

While the bloc prepared to ramp up its efforts, the World Bank said it would not extend any loans to Myanmar because it was already in arrears with the lender for a decade.

Managing Director Juan Jose Daboub said the World Bank is working closely with Southeast Asian countries by providing technical support to assess damages in Myanmar and help plan economic reconstruction in the military-ruled nation.

Myanmar agreed to open its doors to medical teams from all ASEAN countries, Yeo said. ASEAN member Thailand had already sent teams in, as did non-ASEAN neighbors India and China.

ASEAN and the U.N. jointly announced a conference to seek some of the needed funding, to be held this Sunday in Yangon.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will arrive in Yangon on Thursday and stay until Friday night when he will fly to Bangkok. He will return to Yangon on Sunday to co-chair the pledging conference, U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said in New York. He will tour the battered delta during his visit but it is not yet known which officials he will meet.

Earlier, Than Shwe had refused to take telephone calls from Ban and had not responded to letters from him, Montas said.

John Holmes, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, flew Monday by helicopter to the delta before returning to Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, to meet with international aid agencies.

But the United Nations said the rest of its foreign staff were still barred from the delta and it described conditions there as "terrible," with hundreds of thousands of cyclone victims suffering from hunger, disease and lack of shelter.