UN envoy meets Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon

Gambari arrived in Rangoon on Saturday but was flown to Naypyidaw, the ruling junta's hideaway capital, 350 kilometres north of Rangoon.

He returned to Rangoon on Sunday and was immediately granted talks with Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since May, 2003.

Gambai flew to Burma for discussions with the country's entrenched military government on Saturday, seeking to resolve a bloody political uprising which that has generated worldwide demands for the Burmese junta to halt their repression and make way for democratic reforms.

The protests that for nearly two weeks have rocked Burma's two main cities, Rangoon and Mandalay, were reduced to knots of youths shouting insults at thousands of armed police and soldiers deployed on the streets to smother the campaign, according to internet reports from Burma activists and exile groups in neighboring Thailand.

The Buddhist monks who had been leading the protesters were blocked inside monasteries for a second day, surrounded by army troops and frightened by a wave of arrests, the reports said.

The U.N. envoy for Burma, also known as Burma, landed in Rangoon and headed for Naypyidaw, the isolated official capital 250 miles to the north that was chosen two years ago as headquarters for the ruling State Peace and Development Council headed by Senior Gen Than Shwe, according to news agencies.

The Singapore foreign minister, George Yeo, said in New York that Gambari's mission was the best hope for a peaceful end to the crisis and movement toward a political transformation after nearly half a century of military dictatorship.

But in Washington, U.S. officials said the Bush administration was putting pressure on China to play a more active role in persuading Than Shwe and the ruling council to open up space for political reform.

China, with large investments and a strategic partnership with the military junta, has been singled out as the country with the most influence in Burma, which lies along its southern border, Washington Post reported.

Chinese officials so far have declined to intervene forcefully, however, citing a traditional policy of non-interference in other countries' problems.

The U.S. officials suggested that the goal should be the generals' departure from power, perhaps to exile in China, opening the way for a democratic government. But the National Council of the Union of Burma, a main exile umbrella group, said its goal at this stage was less ambitious: national dialogue between the military junta and other political forces in the country.

"The military would be part of the solution," said Soe Aung, a spokesman for the group.

Gambari should first seek a public commitment from the junta to ease its crackdown on demonstrators, he said, and then focus on getting such a dialogue set up.

It would include representatives of the monks who have led the recent protests, he said, in addition to leaders of the National League for Democracy, the party headed by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.