YANGON (Reuters) - A breakthrough could be near on a framework to open up the aid to the millions needing help after Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta early this month, Britain's Asia minister said on Sunday.

Aid has been trickling in for the up to 2.5 million people affected by the cyclone, with Myanmar's military rulers, suspicious of the outside world, reluctant to admit major foreign operations and the workers to run them.

But Britain's Asia minister, Mark Malloch-Brown, said a framework was being set up for a U.N. and Asian-led operation that could solve the impasse.

"I think we're potentially at a turning point, but like all turning points in (Myanmar), the corner will have a few S bends in it," he told Reuters in an interview.

Thousands of children could die within weeks if food does not get to them soon, non-government aid organization Save the Children said on Sunday.

The World Food Program (WFP), leading the outside emergency food effort, said it had managed to get rice and beans to 212,000 of the 750,000 people it thinks are most in need after the May 2 storm, which left at least 134,00 dead or missing.

Malloch-Brown said the United Nations estimates that so far help has reached less than 25 percent of the people in need.

But now, he said: "I'm confident we've got movement here in the sense we've diplomatically found an answer to the stand-off."

HISTORIC DISASTER

In the last 50 years, only two Asian cyclones have exceeded Nargis in terms of human cost -- a 1970 storm that killed 500,000 people in neighboring Bangladesh, and another that killed 143,000 in 1991, also in Bangladesh.

If the reclusive military government still refuses to open its doors to a large-scale tsunami-style aid operation, disaster experts say Nargis's body count could still climb dramatically.

Other countries have urged the former Burma to give aid workers and mercy flights more access.

Malloch-Brown came to Yangon after first visiting some Association of Southeast Asian Nations members, and in Myanmar has seen a succession of senior officials.

He described a process that has begun with Asian nations Myanmar considers friendly sending aid teams into the country, and the presence of an ASEAN assessment team on the ground.

That team is due to report to a meeting of foreign ministers from ASEAN, of which Myanmar is a member, in Singapore on Monday.

These would be steps along the way to an Asian-U.N. led operation into which other countries would channel their efforts.

"We can be relieved today two weeks after the cyclone that there's finally emerging a model of cooperation that could work," Malloch-Brown said.

U.N. chief humanitarian officer John Holmes was due in Yangon later on Sunday. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has previously proposed a "high-level pledging conference" to deal with the crisis as well as having a joint coordinator from the U.N. and ASEAN to oversee aid delivery.

However, junta supremo Than Shwe has refused to talk to Ban on the phone since the cyclone.

CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY?

France has accused the junta of being on the verge of a crime against humanity, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has condemned the generals' sluggish response as "inhuman," and there has been talk of bringing in aid without Myanmar's permission.

"We've never ruled out anything," Malloch-Brown said. "We must do what it takes to help the victims, but this middle option has emerged which offers greater possibility of immediate assistance.

"There's no point making threats if you're trying to work with the government."

The French and U.S. navies have ships equipped with aid and helicopters hovering off Myanmar's waters in the Bay of Bengal, but Paris and Washington say they will not start any aid flights from the vessels until they get a green light from the generals.

Despite his optimism about a possible breakthrough, Malloch-Brown said that because of Myanmar's suspicions of the outside, operations were still unlikely to involve foreign aid worker numbers comparable to other recent disasters in Asia.

The reluctance of the Myanmar military, which has ruled for the last 46 years, to allow a foreign aid worker influx appears to stem from fear of losing its vice-like grip on power.

The generals say they have the situation under control. In addition to their own efforts and some aid teams from friendly countries, they have allowed flights to bring help to Yangon airport, with the junta controlling distribution from there.

But just a few days ago men, women and children stood for miles alongside the road near the delta town of Kunyangon, begging in the mud and rain for scraps of food or clothing from the occasional passing aid vehicle.

Thousands of other refugees are crammed into monasteries and schools, fed and watered by local volunteers and private donors who have sent in clothes, biscuits, dried noodles and rice.

(With additional reporting by Nopporn Wong-Anan and Ed Cropley in BANGKOK; Writing by Jerry Norton; Editing by David Fox)

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