UN envoy visits Burma for talks

-UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari has arrived in Burma ahead of a possible visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Mr Gambari is to meet officials from Burma's military government but it is not clear if he will meet jailed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

She is on trial accused of breaking the terms of her house arrest by letting an uninvited US man stay in her home.


Mr Ban has said he hopes to press the Burmese authorities to release Ms Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

Mr Gambari was to fly to Burma's capital, Naypyidaw, after arriving in Rangoon on Friday.

'Exile links'

After his two-day trip, he will brief Mr Ban before the UN chief decides whether to visit Burma.

It is the special envoy's eighth visit to Burma to try to promote political reconciliation between the military government and the pro-democracy movement led by Ms Suu Kyi.

Before Mr Gambari arrived in Burma, the country's police chief said Ms Suu Kyi's visitor, John Yettaw, had links to Burmese exile groups in Thailand.

Mr Yettaw is also on trial over his visit to Ms Suu Kyi's lakeside home in Rangoon.
Aung San Suu Kyi meets Thai, Singapore and Russian diplomats, 20 May
Ms Suu Kyi has been allowed few visitors since being detained

Her trial over the incident was again postponed on Friday until 3 July - the latest in a series of delays over allowing more defence witnesses.

Observers say the charges against Ms Suu Kyi - which carry a maximum punishment of five years in jail - are designed to keep her imprisoned until after next year's election.

She has already spent 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest, banned from seeing all but a small group of people.

Burma's military rulers have refused to recognise the results of general elections in 1990, won by Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.