UN envoy says Burma has not reached "point of no return"

Some progress has been made since the military junta launched a bloody crackdown in September on peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks and students.

Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi "has said that the signs are promising, and it appears to her that the regime seems to be more seriously committed to dialogue and to move the situation forward," The Straits Times quoted Gambari as saying in New York prior to heading to Singapore.

Leaders of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are attending a landmark summit to be highlighted by the signing Tuesday of a charter giving the 40-year-old grouping legal status and committing member countries to progress in human rights.

ASEAN includes Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Burma.

Gambari is set to brief the East Asian Summit, an expanded group of the 10 ASEAN members plus China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said that ASEAN and East Asian counterparts were looking forward to Gambari's briefing.

"His good offices are very important for the process of national reconciliation in Burma, and we're looking forward to it," he told reporters Monday before meeting with the task force that drafted the ASEAN Charter to be signed by leaders.

Amid questions on whether the charter would be effective, Yeo said, "It will take us a step forward."

After meeting top junta officials during his recent visits to Burma, Gambari said there was a feeling in the country that the status quo was both "unsustainable and undesirable."

He noted a significant change in the attitudes of ASEAN, China and India in dealing with Burma. "They have spoken in ways they have never spoken before," he said.

"But primarily the solution to the problems of Burma lies with the government and people of the country with the support of ASEAN, the UN and international community," Gambari told the newspaper. "It is not a point of no return, yet, in Burma. There is hope."

Deutsche Presse-Agentur