Posted: 2007-11-08 04:25:47

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari met with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday – but there were signs his diplomatic mission to Myanmar had not been a resounding success.

Witnesses saw a convoy of three cars, the last filled with riot police, drive Suu Kyi from the residence where she is under house arrest to a nearby state guest house where she met Gambari twice before.

Aye Win, a spokesman for the U.N. office in Yangon, confirmed the scheduled meeting. “He’s gone to meet her,” he said.

However, the absence of a meeting between Gambari and top leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe – and Myanmar’s rejection of a proposed three-way meeting involving Suu Kyi, a junta member and Gambari to promote reconciliation – suggested that Gambari’s mission has accomplished little.

Gambari returned Thursday to Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, after several days of talks with government officials and other parties in the remote new capital of Naypyitaw.

The envoy, sent to Myanmar after the U.N. Security Council condemned a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in September, met with recently appointed Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein, the U.N. said in a statement from Yangon.

The statement said Gambari had delivered a letter from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and addressed to junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe – who had refused to receive Gambari.

The statement gave no details of the letter.

The U.N. statement said Gambari suggested to Thein Sein specific steps to satisfy international concerns about Myanmar’s political deadlock, which began with the military’s failure to hand over power to Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party after it won a 1990 general election.

“These (steps) include the need for dialogue with the opposition without delay as part of an inclusive national reconciliation process, as well as necessary confidence-building measures in the humanitarian and socio-economic areas, including the establishment of a broad-based poverty alleviation commission,” the U.N. statement said.

It said Thein Sein reiterated his government’s support for Gambari’s efforts and invited him to return to Myanmar.

The junta is expected to host the U.N.’s special investigator for human rights in Myanmar, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who has been invited for five-day visit starting Sunday.

Gambari met senior members of Suu Kyi’s party in Naypyitaw, as well as executives of the National Unity Party – formerly the Burma Socialist Programme Party of the late dictator Ne Win.

Security was tightened Thursday morning along the route from Yangon’s airport and around the state guest house, where Gambari had earlier met Suu Kyi.

Organized supporters of the junta were stationed in small groups near the guest house. They have previously been used as strong-arms squads against dissidents – including in late September’s crackdown, when the military killed at least 10 protesters and arrested thousands of people. Diplomats and dissidents say the death toll was much higher.

Gambari arrived in Myanmar on Saturday and was set to leave later Thursday.