(Adds comments from Ban's spokeswoman)

UNITED NATIONS, May 18 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will travel to Myanmar this week to try to speed up troubled aid operations for victims of the devastating cyclone that hit earlier this month, his spokeswoman said on Sunday.

"I can confirm he (Ban) is going to Myanmar this week," spokeswoman Michele Montas said by telephone.

She said Ban was expected to arrive in the Southeast Asian country on Wednesday evening and travel to the Irrawaddy delta, the area hit the hardest by Cyclone Nargis.

Ban hoped to meet senior members of Myanmar's reclusive military government, Montas said, but she could not immediately identify which ones.

"The objective of the trip is to dramatically accelerate the flow of disaster relief," she said.

Food, medicine and other outside aid have been slow to reach Myanmar because the junta, suspicious of the outside world, has been reluctant to let in foreign relief and the workers to distribute it. (Reporting by Patrick Worsnip; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

AlertNet news is provided by