As Burmese military junta announced its decision to allow Asian countries to provide aid to the regions worst hit the Cyclone Nargis. The leaders of Myanmar’s neighboring countries met to agree on how to coordinate the relief effort.

The political leaders met in Singapore in an emergency meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The South Asian countries will work together to coordinate the aid efforts which will include allowing of medical teams and aid workers into Myanmar, Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo said.

Myanmar’s military rulers have been reluctant to foreign aid so far despite the catastrophic impact the cyclone had on the country. The foreign organizations that managed to offer their assistance to those who needed it in Myanmar had problems of getting their personnel across the border. Many of those involved in the relief effort are still skeptics about Myanmar’s readiness to open up to outside aid agencies.

However, the ASEAN emergency meeting offered an indication that the position of the military leaders may change.

Lord Malloch-Brown, a British Foreign Office minister, said he believes the military junta will make some “dramatic steps …to open up.”

The foreign ministries of 10 countries members of ASEAN attended the meeting in Singapore. ASEA has been recently criticized for not putting enough pressure on the Burmese junta to allow aid to its suffering people. Myanmar is also a member of ASEAN.

Myanmar’s Irrawaddy River delta region was hit by Tropical Cyclone Nargis 17 days ago. The tropical storm killed nearly 134,000 people and left hundreds of thousands without shelter.

The U.N. also estimated that nearly 1.6 million to 2.5 million survivors need urgent help consisting in food, water, shelter and medicine.