"But, of course, she needs to be allowed to see her doctor much more regularly," said the UN envoy, who held talks with the 61-year-old Nobel peace laureate Saturday in Yangon in a rare meeting granted by the ruling junta.

During their one-hour meeting, Aung San Suu Kyi told him that she was in good health but wanted to receive more medical care, said a statement from the United Nations, which also released recent photographs of her, the first in three years.

Wearing a traditional purple silk "longyi" dress with flower prints, the pro-democracy leader looked drawn and gave a modest smile as she posed for pictures with Gambari.

She had a gynecological operation in 2003 and fell ill in June with stomach troubles. On that occasion, her doctor was allowed to treat her in her home.

Apart from her live-in maid, Aung San Suu Kyi is allowed no contact with the outside world, except for once-a-month visits from her doctor, Tin Myo Win.

But the doctor has not seen her since August, according to a spokesman for her opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD).

Burma's police had said the doctor would likely see her this weekend for a general medical checkup and an ultrasound examination, but NLD spokesman Lwin, who uses one name, said the doctor's visit would come after Gambari's.

Despite years of detention, Gambari said Aung San Suu Kyi was "very alert". "She is concerned not only just about her own welfare but the welfare of the people of Myanmar," he added.

The opposition leader was also concerned about "the contribution that her party, the NLD and others can make to peace, development, democracy and the development of human rights in the country," he said.

The Nigerian diplomat became the only foreigner allowed to see Aung San Suu Kyi in more than two years when he saw her during his previous visit to Burma in May.

She has been under house arrest in Yangon for most of the past 17 years, and Saturday's meeting allowed the detained opposition leader to leave her lakeside house for the first time since their previous meeting on May 20.

Ahead of the meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, Gambari flew to Myanmar's new administrative capital, Nay Pyi Taw, some 350 kilometres (217 miles) north of Yangon, and saw junta leader Than Shwe.

Gambari had "a frank and extensive dialogue" with Than Shwe that covered a range of political and humanitarian issues that included the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, and the country's estimated 1,100 political prisoners, the envoy said.

Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD won 1990 elections in a landslide victory, but the military, which has ruled Burma since 1962, refused to recognize the result.

The country's state-run media, in a rare reference to the detained icon, said in July that freeing Aung San Suu Kyi would endanger the country and derided as "meaningless" international outcry at her detention.

Agence France-Presse