Burmese junta leader meets UN special envoy

 The outcome of the meeting was not made public, according to diplomats. There were unconfirmed reports that following the meeting Gambari was heading back to Rangoon.

Gambari arrived in Burma Saturday to assess the situation in the country in the aftermath of a brutal crackdown on peaceful monk-led protests last week that left at least 10 people dead, according to the government's tally. The real death toll is feared to be much higher. 

On Sunday, Gambari was allowed to meet for an hour with the country's democracy icon, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, in Rangoon, the former capital and Burma's largest city, but details of their talks have yet to be disclosed.

On Tuesday, he was finally granted an audience with Than Shwe, 74, who heads the State Peace and Development Council, as Burma's junta styles itself.

Burma has been ruled by generals since 1962, and there is little likelihood that the military clique currently running the country would forfeit power to Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party, which won a 1990 election but has been blocked from assuming office for the past 17 years by the junta.

There is skepticism about what Gambari's mission would accomplish. On his last visit to Burma in May 2006, he was also allowed to meet with Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since May 2003. A week after his departure, the junta slapped another year on Suu Kyi's detention term.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon instructed Gambari in a recent telephone conversation to deliver a message to the generals, UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.

"The secretary general asked his envoy to call on the Myanmar authorities to cease the repression of peaceful protest, release the detainees and move more credibly and inclusively in the direction of democratic reform, human rights and national reconciliation," Okabe said in New York.//DPA