UN envoy meets Aung San Suu Kyi

UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari has had talks with Burma's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Diplomats said Mr Gambari met Miss Suu Kyi for more than an hour at a Yangon government guest house near the lakeside villa where she is confined without a telephone and requires official permission, granted rarely, to receive visitors.

They met after Mr Gambari flew back from Naypyidaw where he had talks with acting Prime Minister Thein Sein, Culture Minister Khin Aung Nyint and Information Minister Kyaw Hsan, they said.

It is not known if he has made any progress towards ending the crackdown on the biggest anti-junta protests for nearly 20 years.

There were no crowds visible on Sunday in the city centre, where security forces snuffed out protests by sealing off two pagodas at their heart and keeping away the monks who led them.

But scores of arrests were made overnight, further demoralising those seeking to end decades of military dictatorship.

Overnight the number of troops in Rangoon, Burma's largest city, swelled to around 20,000 after reinforcements arrived, ensuring that almost all demonstrators would remain off the streets, one Asian diplomat said.

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