UN special envoy arrives to disappointment at Singapore summit

Gambari was supposed to brief leaders of 16 countries at the East Asian Summit - led by the 10-country Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEN) - but the event was cancelled Monday night after Burma stressed that he should only report to the United Nations.

He instead is to hold bilateral meetings with the leaders.

So far, the leaders of the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Australia and Malaysia have scheduled meetings with Gambari, who has made two visits to Burma since a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Rangoon in September.

The cancellation of Gambari's scheduled address has been an unexpected development at the Asean Leaders Summit with analysts saying they did not anticipate the 40-year-old association would cave in to Myanmar's position.

A senior Philippine official said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was among the leaders upset by the cancellation.

The official said that while the Philippines does not support sanctions against Burma because they would only affect the poor people, it was now time for Asean "to push" the military junta into taking genuine steps toward democracy.

"We tried to give Myanmar (Burma) a chance to reform, but it has come to a point where we now have to push them," the official said.

Attending the East Asian Summit were Asean members Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar as well as China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.//dpa