Top UN envoy meets Myanmar opposition

Ibrahim Gambari, UN under-secretary general for political affairs, arrived in Yangon Thursday for a three-day visit, marking the highest-level mission by the global body for more than two years.

He has asked to see 60-year-old Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of the National League for Democracy (NLD), who has spent more than 10 of the last 17 years under house arrest.

But NLD spokesman Myint Thein said the party did not believe the military would approve a meeting between Gambari and Aung San Suu Kyi, whose house arrest is expected to be extended next week.

Instead, the junta brought seven members of the NLD's central executive committee for a meeting with the UN envoy later Friday. Myint Thein said the meeting took place but had no further details.

Asda Juyanama, a former Thai ambassador to the United Nations, said he was skeptical whether Myanmar would allow Gambari to see Aung San Suu Kyi.

"If they don't let him see her, it is a signal to the world that this regime does not want to talk to anybody" except China, India and Thailand, Myanmar's neighbours with close political and economic contacts with the junta, he said.

"They are afraid of her because if she goes out, there will be a large following," the former UN ambassador said.

The junta crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988 and two years later rejected the result of national elections won by the NLD.

Gambari's mission came as US President George W. Bush on Thursday renewed economic sanctions on Myanmar for another year, saying its military rulers posed a threat to US national security and foreign policy.