YANGON, Myanmar - A UN special envoy will meet Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday, the last day of his frustrating mission to try to ease the country's political crisis, diplomats said.
But hopes for a breakthrough by the envoy Ibrahim Gambari dimmed Wednesday after the military government rejected proposed talks with Suu Kyi.
Gambari has also failed to meet the country's most powerful figure, junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
The six-day visit is Gambari's second to Myanmar, also called Burma, since the military killed at least 10 protesters in late September and arrested thousands of people. Diplomats and dissidents put the death toll much higher.
He was sent to Myanmar to promote political reconciliation after the UN Security Council condemned the crackdown. He met with both Suu Kyi and Than Shwe on his previous visit.
Gambari told foreign diplomats in Myanmar's remote capital Naypyitaw that he would meet Suu Kyi in the country's commercial center, Yangon, according to an Asian diplomat who attended the UN envoy's one-hour briefing. The diplomat and his colleagues insisted on anonymity so as not to breach etiquette.
Gambari did not mention any plans to meet with Than Shwe, the diplomat said.
The UN envoy told the diplomats he met Wednesday with recently appointed Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein and a leading junta member, Secretary-One Lt. Gen. Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo -- the most senior officials to see him so far. But did not disclose details of the meeting.
Gambari earlier had proposed a three-way meeting among Suu Kyi, a junta member and himself to promote political reform and reconciliation.
"Currently, the tripartite meeting will not be possible," Information Minister Brig. Gen. Kyaw Hsan told Gambari on Tuesday, according to the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
In talks Tuesday in Naypyitaw, Kyaw Hsan told Gambari that his earlier visit "did not bear fruit as we had expected," and instead was followed by new sanctions from the United States, Australia and the European Union as well as condemnation from the UN Security Council, the newspaper said.
"I would like you to know that Myanmar is a small nation and if a big power bullies her. ... We will have no other way but to face this and endure," Kyaw Hsan said.
The minister said Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi had yet to respond to the government's request that she refrain from calling for international sanctions against Myanmar, a condition earlier set by the junta for talks with her.
Suu Kyi is under house arrest in Yangon, where the government blocks almost all access to her. The military rulers granted a rare exception to Gambari during his first visit at the beginning of October.
Gambari is scheduled to meet senior members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party on Wednesday, a party spokesman said.
In New York, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern Tuesday at the "lack of progress" in Gambari's mission.
Ban said he instructed Gambari to urge the junta to meet with Suu Kyi, release all detained monks, students and demonstrators, and "take necessary democratic measures."
The UN's account of the meeting with Kyaw Hsan and other ministers said they held "very frank and extensive exchanges" on all issues.
In a statement released Wednesday, the UN said these included the need for a dialogue between the junta and Suu Kyi "to start without delay as an indispensable part of any process of national reconciliation," as well as a lifting of restrictions on Suu Kyi and all political prisoners.
The UN's special envoy on human rights in Myanmar, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, said Tuesday that he has been invited by the junta to visit Nov. 11-15.
Pinheiro, who has been barred by the government from visiting since 2003, said the invitation "sends a positive indication of the desire of the authorities to cooperate with his mandate" to investigate human rights in Myanmar.
