SINGAPORE: Ibrahim Gambari, Special Envoy of U.N. Secretary-General, has met top officials of Myanmar’s ruling junta and Aung San Suu Kyi, the celebrated democracy campaigner, according to diplomatic and dissident sources.

Mr. Gambari, now in Myanmar to persuade the junta to end the crisis and promote national reconciliation and a political settlement, met the military leaders in Naypyitaw, the capital, on Saturday.

He met Ms. Suu Kyi at the State Guest House in Yangon on Sunday.

She was escorted there by the junta officials, according to local reports.

And, he is expected to travel to Naypyitaw again for a possible follow-up meeting with the junta leaders there. It is not immediately clear whether Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) as the junta is called, will receive Mr. Gambari.

No specifics of the talks held so far, not even in terms of indicating the subjects discussed, have been made public by any of the parties concerned, including the U.N.

Myanmar’s pro-democracy sources told The Hindu that they would regard Mr. Gambari as a “representative of the international community” and not as a spokesman for the anti-junta dissidents. It was, therefore, possible that he was now engaged in some form of shuttle diplomacy between Myanmar’s military regime and the pro-democracy opponents including the Buddhist monks who had now risen in revolt, these sources said.

The junta agreed to Mr. Gambari’s visit after the Security Council called for restraint by the military regime in responding to the latest waves of protest over an array of issues from fuel price rise to political freedoms.

With soldiers and police intensifying their patrols on the streets of Yangon and other places in Myanmar, there were no protest marches and violent reprisals on Sunday.

The authorities continued their blockade of the key Buddhist monasteries, the epicentre of the movement.

Demonstrations were held in several southeast Asian capitals outside the Myanmar embassies there, in support of the democracy movement.

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