A day after U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited Myanmar and talked with the heads of the military junta, the country’s leaders announced they agreed to allow access to all foreign aid workers regardless of nationalities so they can help the people of the country that was struck by Cyclone Nargis.

The good news was delivered by the U.N. Secretary General himself after he completed the visit in Myanmar. After nearly two hours of talks with Senior General Than Shwe, Ban managed to persuade the reclusive military leader to change his position on the foreign aid.

“He has agreed to allow all aid workers,” Mr Ban told reporters in Naypyidaw, where the talked with the 75-year-old general and chief of the Burmese military government.

Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar, one of the poorest countries in the world, on May 2-3. The impact of the tropical storm was devastating: nearly 133,000 people were reported dead or missing and approximately 2.5 million were left without shelter. Only a quarter of those in need of aid were reached by the relief teams, but with the changing of policy, the situation will surely improve.

Myanmar has allowed foreign aid to pass its borders but only to a small extent. Although several nations, including the US, managed to send aid supplies, this amounts to only 20 percent of the needed supplies.

Several international relief organizations urged the Myanmar government to allow them to send relief workers in the regions hit by the cyclone and warned that if that doesn’t happen, many more people will die due to the lack of food, water, shelter and medical care.

Until now, the Myanmar regime had allowed the supplies to cross its borders, but the foreign relief workers were not granted visas.

Ban is the first UN secretary general to visit Myanmar, former Burma, in more than four decades.