The United Nations wants to send its top emergency relief coordinator to Myanmar _ if he can get a visa from the ruling military junta.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been frustrated by the regime’s obstacles to foreign assistance for victims of the May 3 cyclone that pummeled the Southeast Asian nation and destroyed towns across the Irrawaddy River delta.

Ban would like to send in John Holmes, undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, to try “to open up access for more humanitarian assistance to go to the delta area, to go to the actual victims,” U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Thursday.

She said Ban had still not been able to arrange his own direct talks with the chairman of Myanmar’s junta despite repeated calls and letters.

Holmes applied for a visa Wednesday to enter Myanmar aboard a U.N. World Food Program plane carrying supplies. Montas said he had not yet gotten approval, but “we expect he will get it.”

The U.N. worries a “second wave” of deaths from disease and starvation may result if more help isn’t provided quickly for people in urgent need of food, water and shelter.

Holmes has criticized the junta’s refusal to let international relief workers go to the disaster area, calling the situation “extremely regrettable and unacceptable.”

Ban said Wednesday that he had secured support from Myanmar, its neighbors and key donors to increase the flow of aid and convene a donors’ conference this month.

“In view of the magnitude of this crisis, much more needs to be done,” Ban told reporters. “The Myanmese ambassador has assured that the Myanmese government will do all to assist.”