Last year aid workers in Myanmar hoped they were about to turn a corner in their relationship with the repressive junta after Cyclone Nargis smashed into the country leaving 2.4 million people in desperate need of help.

Despite its initial reluctance to let in foreign aid workers, the secretive regime finally relented and opened the doors to a major international relief effort.

Unfortunately, it now seems unlikely that aid workers will be able to replicate elsewhere in the country the successes they've achieved in the disaster zone - at least not any time soon.

Worse, observers fear Myanmar's brutal generals could be returning to form amid signs they may be limiting access to the Irrawaddy Delta - the region which bore the brunt of Nargis' wrath.

Many agree that much has been achieved in the disaster zone - from providing survivors with food and shelter to preventing a second wave of deaths from outbreaks of disease.

In addition, the opportunity for government departments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to work together on a large scale for the first time has had positive impacts, aid workers say.

"There's a genuine understanding and respect for the work that we can do, which wasn't there before. Likewise, many humanitarian agencies in the delta weren't in Myanmar before and didn't understand the local context," said Andrew Kirkwood, country director of charity Save The Children UK.

"I think both sides have a much better appreciation of the realities on the ground and that can only be a good thing for the future."

CLAMP-DOWN?

The Tripartite Core Group (TCG) - a coordinating vehicle consisting of the United Nations, Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Myanmar government - was formed three weeks after the cyclone, and is generally considered in a positive light. But aid workers are worried by new developments.

"We knew that the best people who could work with the government, who could talk to them, who could speak in a similar language would be the ASEAN and not the U.N. or the international aid communities," said one aid worker.

"But right now, the indication is not great, because pro-NGO people are ousted from the government."

The aid worker, who declined to be named, was referring to TCG chairman Kyaw Thu, a former deputy foreign minister. In early February, the junta transferred him to the Civil Service Selection and Training Board - a move observers see as a sacking.

Although Kyaw Thu has assured aid agencies that his new position allows him better access to the junta's upper echelons, many remain uneasy about the future of the TCG and NGOs.

And despite the TCG's assertions that recovery from Nargis will take three years and cost $700 million, the junta has only extended the group's work until mid-2010.

Then in March, the junta announced the TCG would only handle the extension and renewal of travel visas to the delta for U.N. and ASEAN staff, not for NGO staff. Aid agencies were told this was because the emergency relief phase was over.

This means foreign aid workers in international agencies will have to apply via the relevant government ministry to travel to the delta. Approval is expected to take much longer as it did in pre-cyclone days.

TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS

These moves have prompted concern that the junta may be tightening the reins ahead of elections in 2010.

Mark Canning, Britain's ambassador to Myanmar, said he hoped humanitarian work and access would remain as it is, but added: "We think it's going to be quite constrained in the period coming up to the election."

One aid worker said the junta has already stopped accepting new applications from NGOs not already working in the country.

Chris Kaye, country director for the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP), said that on the surface of it the relationship with the government outside the delta hadn't got much better.

"Access is not any easier to any other parts of the country," said Kaye, whose programme also provides food in the flashpoint states of Rakhine in the west and Chin in the north.

Nevertheless, Kaye said cooperation with some ministries had improved significantly.

But another Yangon-based aid worker said international relief workers wishing to travel to hotspot areas, where the military wants to keep a tight grip on ethnic minority groups, will have to wait at least a couple of months before their trips are approved.

What makes it particularly difficult for the aid community, observers say, is the perceived lack of clear rules and regulations on why certain things are allowed and others aren't.

Sanaka Samarasinha, deputy resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme, said just because the situation had changed in the delta it didn't mean things had changed fundamentally elsewhere.

"There were a few doors opened here and there, but it's something we can't take for granted," he said.

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