The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Yangon

A U.N. envoy left Myanmar on Monday after seeing detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi twice in three days but without making major progress in convincing the military junta to implement democratic reforms.

U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari spent 50 minutes with the Nobel laureate, who was taken from the state guest house where they met on Monday back to the lakeside Yangon villa where she has been under house arrest since May 2003.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gave no details of Gambari's meeting with the detained dissident but indicated he was disappointed after Gambari's visit to the country.

"There was some progress but we have not been able to achieve as much we had hoped," Ban told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York at a news conference on Africa and the global fight against poverty.

Ban said Gambari did not meet with senior general Than Shwe but was able to see "many senior people, even including the constitution drafting or review committee members."

"That was unusual," Ban said.

He said he would "continue to press the reform issue so that Myanmar will meet the expectations of the international community toward democratization."

Among the officials Gambari met was Information Minister Kyaw Hsan, the highest-ranking official he saw on the trip.

In this meeting Gambari was told the junta would not deviate from its own "roadmap to democracy" despite international pressure after last year's protests.

"To speak frankly, the road we have been taking is the correct and most suitable one for our country," Kyaw Hsan told Gambari in a meeting broadcast on state television. His words squashed hopes the generals would include Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in their much-criticized plans to restore civilian government after more than four decades of military rule.

"We are firmly convinced that it is the best way and it will ensure a smooth and peaceful transition to democracy for our country," Kyaw Hsan, a brigadier general, said. Shortly afterward, the Nigerian diplomat left for Singapore, ending his third visit to the former Burma since authorities brutally crushed pro-democracy marches in September. During his four-day visit, the generals made it clear they would not entertain any changes to the constitution they have drafted, despite Western concerns it is a blueprint for the military hanging on to power.