YANGON, Sept 30: UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari held talks on Sunday with Myanmar’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and several members of the military government to discuss ending a crackdown on protests against military rule.

However, there was no word on when Mr Gambari might meet the general who heads the junta, Than Shwe, who is based in the new capital Naypyidaw, 240 miles north of Yangon, and whose government rarely heeds pressure from outside.

“He looks forward to meeting Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, before the conclusion of his mission,” a UN statement said.

Diplomats said Mr Gambari met 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 was not known if he had made any progress towards ending the crackdown on the biggest anti-junta protests for nearly 20 years, in which hundreds of Buddhist monks were held, central Yangon was sealed off and troops were deployed on the streets.

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.

Troops and police searched bags and people for cameras and the Internet remained off line.

The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission said at least 700 monks and 500 other people had been arrested throughout the country.

The protests began with small marches against fuel price rises in mid-August and intensified when soldiers fired over the heads of protesting monks, causing monasteries to mobilise.

The crackdown, in which soldiers shot into crowds, raided monasteries and took monks away in trucks, provoked an outraged response from governments around the world.

The heavy-handed suppression even prompted criticism from China, the closest the junta has to an ally, and condemnation from the Association of South East Asian Nation, of which Myanmar is a member.—Reuters