By Amy Kazmin in New Delhi

Published: July 4 2009 15:20 | Last updated: July 5 2009 07:47

Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary general, publicly criticised Burma’s military rulers this weekend after the country’s powerful army chief rebuffed his plea to meet jailed democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi during a two-day visit.

In a rare critical public speech to 500 state officials, diplomats and opposition politicians at Rangoon’s Drug Elimination Museum, Mr Ban said the military junta had “missed a very important opportunity” as it prepares for controversial parliamentary elections next year.

“Allowing a visit to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would have been an important symbol of the government’s willingness to embark on the kind of meaningful engagement that will be essential if the elections in 2010 are to be seen as credible,” the UN chief told his audience. “I am deeply disappointed.”

Earlier, Mr Ban told reporters that his inability to see the Nobel laureate, whose National League for Democracy won a sweeping election victory in 1990 but was never permitted to govern, was “a setback to the international community’s efforts to provide a helping hand to Myanmar [Burma] at this time.”

The New Light of Myanmar, an English-language state newspaper, said Sunday that Mr Ban’s representative had been informed ahead of the visit that he would not be permitted to meet Ms Suu Kyi due to her ongoing criminal trial.

Ms Suu Kyi is in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison on trial for violating the terms of her house arrest, following a bizarre incident in which an American sneaked into her bungalow.

A group of Rangoon-based diplomats were permitted to meet her in Insein a few weeks ago amid an international surge of concern about her well being.

Human rights groups say that the army chief’s rebuff to Mr Ban – the culmination of more than 14 years of failed UN efforts to cajole Burma’s political masters into talks with their most high-profile critic – reflects the regime’s contempt for the UN and its agenda.

“None of it was a surprise; his disappointment was almost a foregone conclusion,” said David Mathieson, a Burma research for Human Rights Watch. “It’s them saying, ‘We are going ahead with what we want to do and we don’t care what you think about it. The idea that you can come here and fix everything the west wants – forget it.’”

The New Light of Myanmar said the government was trying to cooperate with the UN and described Mr Ban as supportive of the junta’s own controversial political reform process, which critics see as a little more than as putting a civilian facade over on-going military rule.

After years of resisting western pressure to enter a political dialogue with Ms Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 14 of the last 19 years, the junta is proceeding with its own plans to establish what it calls a ‘disciplined democracy,’ with a parliament that has 25 per cent of the seats reserved for military appointees.

(c) The Financial Times Limited 2009