Foreign aid agencies Saturday called on Myanmar's junta to urgently clarify the rules for operating in the country's cyclone-devastated areas, expressing hope tinged with skepticism after the regime promised to open its doors to the international community.

Myanmar's ruling generals offered no elaboration after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Friday that the junta had agreed to allow "all aid workers" into the country. The concession came after three weeks of blocking relief for cyclone survivors and on the eve of an international donors conference Sunday in Myanmar.

"I want to be optimistic, but I'm skeptical," Lionel Rosenblatt, president emeritus of U.S.-based Refugees International said, voicing comments echoed by relief agencies worldwide. "My overall impression is skepticism and what this actually means. The devil is going to be in the implementation."

The possible breakthrough distracted attention from the junta's widely criticized decision to push ahead Saturday with a constitutional referendum in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, and hard-hit delta areas.

Critics say the proposed charter is designed to strengthen the military's grip on power and they had urged the government to focus on relief efforts.

Saturday's voting was a pointless exercise. The rest of the country voted May 10, and state radio has said the delayed balloting could not reverse the constitution's reported approval by 92.4 percent of the 22 million eligible voters.

Detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi cast her ballot on Friday evening when referendum officials visited her Yangon home with a ballot card, an official said on condition of anonymity. Suu Kyi's opposition party called for a "No" vote on the proposed charter, which effectively bars her from holding elected office.

Suu Kyi's home was damaged during the May 2-3 cyclone, which decimated the Irrawaddy delta, Myanmar's key rice-producing region in the southwest.

The xenophobic junta has kept the delta virtually off-limits to foreign aid workers, who have been barred from leaving Yangon.

The push to get aid workers into the delta is increasingly urgent because an estimated 2.5 million people remain in severe need, threatened by disease, hunger and exposure because of the loss of their homes.

"It is a race against time to get aid to the people who desperately need it," the British aid group Oxfam said in a statement, adding it "cautiously welcomed" the junta's new willingness to accept foreign experts but was waiting to see "genuine efforts to relieve the suffering on the ground."

Aid agencies said that much needs to be clarified from Ban's meeting, ranging from logistical issues about when aid workers' visas will be granted to how long they will be allowed to stay in Myanmar and where they can work.

"We're hopeful that it means more foreign aid workers will go to the worst-affected areas," said Save the Children spokeswoman Kate Conradt. "We already have a number of expatriate staff in Yangon. They just can't leave the city."

The U.S.-based International Rescue Committee said in a statement it is "still seeking clarity" and hoped aid workers will truly have "unhindered access to deliver aid."

Official estimates put the death toll at about 78,000, with another 56,000 missing. Myanmar has estimated the economic damage at about $11 billion. Continued...