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THE United Nations and Asean will convene an international conference in Yangon on Sunday to help Myanmar alleviate the impact of Cyclone Nargis that devastated many cities in the country early this month and caused widespread suffering to its people.
This announcement comes a day after the Asean foreign ministers met in Singapore on Monday. At the meeting, Myanmar agreed to receive an Asean natural disaster mitigation task force.
The Asean-UN International Pledging Conference will be co-chaired by the two bodies.
Member states of the United Nations are invited to participate in the Conference at the Ministerial level.
'The Conference will focus on the needs of those affected by the cyclone, and seek international support and financial assistance for the international humanitarian response to meet the most urgent challenges, as well as longer term recovery efforts,' said Asean and UN in a joint statement on Tuesday.
The co-convenors call on the international community to rise to the occasion and translate their solidarity and sympathy into concrete commitments to help the people of Myanmar emerge from the tragedy and rebuild their lives.
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