BURMA:Burma's ruling junta has rejected UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari's bid for three-way talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his visit, official media said on Tuesday.
In New York, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said he was concerned by the lack of progress in Mr Gambari's latest visit to Burma and his inability so far to meet the junta's top general.
Information minister Kyaw Hsan told Mr Gambari a three-way meeting - which Mr Gambari hopes would include himself, Ms Suu Kyi, and junta officials - was premature and he warned that tougher international sanctions on Burma would only make matters worse.
"Myanmar [ Burma] will not bow to outside pressure. It will never allow any outside interference to infringe on the sovereignty of the state," state-run MRTV quoted Mr Hsan as saying during talks with Mr Gambari in the new capital, Naypyidaw.
The UN said Mr Gambari "had very frank and extensive exchanges" with senior junta officials on the fourth day of a mission aimed at securing talks between Ms Suu Kyi and the generals who crushed pro-democracy protests in late September.
He urged that dialogue "start without delay as an indispensable part of any process of national reconciliation, and the lifting of restrictions on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all political detainees as the necessary steps to that end", the UN office in Rangoon said in a statement.
The statement made no mention of Mr Gambari's request for three-way talks involving himself, Ms Suu Kyi and Gen Aung Kyi, who met the Nobel laureate for 75 minutes last month after he was appointed the junta's liaison minister.
Mr Hsan said Ms Suu Kyi had not responded to the conditions set for direct talks with junta chief Senior Gen Than Shwe, which included ending "confrontation" and her support for sanctions and "utter devastation" - a term not defined.
"He asked Gambari to urge Aung San Suu Kyi to respond to it," MRTV said.
Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which won a massive election victory in 1990 only to be denied power by the army, has said any negotiations should have no prior strings attached.
Mr Gambari was due to meet other top junta members and brief the diplomatic corps in Naypyidaw yesterday, but there was no word on an audience with Gen Shwe.
"I am concerned at this time about the lack of progress. He [ Mr Gambari] has not been able to meet with Senior General Than Shwe," Mr Ban told reporters at the UN.
The UN chief said he understood Mr Gambari would meet Ms Suu Kyi yesterday in Rangoon, where she met him twice during his last visit after soldiers crushed pro-democracy protests in September, triggering international outrage. He also met Gen Shwe on that trip.
Rumours that Ms Suu Kyi (62) had fallen ill swirled around Rangoon on Tuesday, but NLD spokesman Nyan Win said she was "okay".
A source at Rangoon's Asia Tawwin Hospital said Ms Suu Kyi, who has spent 12 of the last 18 years in detention, had a minor operation to remove an ingrown fingernail and had returned to her lakeside home, where she is under house arrest.
The UN has said Mr Gambari will stay in Burma as long as necessary to accomplish his mission.