YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar began three days of mourning for some 78,000 cyclone victims today, after its ruling junta appeared to relent to foreign pressure to allow more outside help for its storm survivors.

Flags at government offices, schools and large hotels were lowered to half staff to mourn for people killed by Cyclone Nargis on May 2-3. But there was no period of silence. Shops were open as usual, and many people in Yangon said they had little idea of what the government-announced mourning entailed.

The mourning began a day after junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe met storm victims in the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta and declared the regime had "promptly carried out rescue and rehabilitation tasks," according to state-owned media.

The general said the government, which has said it has spent more than $45.5 million on its relief operations, had met immediate needs such as food, shelter and health care and was now moving into the reconstruction phase.

But his assessment contrasted with ones from foreign aid agencies and the United Nations, which said that only some 500,000 of the 2.4 million storm victims have received some form of international assistance.

And the regime did agree on Monday to allow its Asian neighbors to oversee the distribution of foreign relief to cyclone survivors.

It also approved a visit by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and prepared to host a meeting of aid donors, while saying that losses from the May 2-3 disaster exceeded $10 billion.

Conditions in the hard-hit low-lying delta, remain precarious for the survivors, who face disease, malnutrition and exposure to the elements. The official death toll for the storm stands at about 78,000, with another 56,000 people missing.