A United Nations special envoy pressed Myanmar officials on Friday to release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Global concern over SuuKyi's whereaboutsThe envoy Razali Ismail, personally handpicked by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, arrived in Yangon following worldwide concern that the 57-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate was hurt during his arrest.
Razali met Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung on Friday. He is scheduled to meet the military intelligence chief and number three in the junta Khin Nyunt on Saturday morning.
Razali hopes to get the green signal for a meeting with Suu Kyi.
UN sources in New York said Razali's orders from Annan were to meet with Suu Kyi and leaders of her National League for Democracy party. They said he would cut short his mission and leave Myanmar immediately if the request were denied.
House arrests
Razali has visited Myanmar over the past two years to encourage talks on a democratic transition in the country ruled by the military since a 1962 coup.
The ruling generals have held Suu Kyi at undisclosed locations since violence erupted between her supporters and those favouring the junta last Friday as she toured a provincial town in the North.
Myanmar has also shut NLD offices and ordered 19 of its leaders confined to their houses. The NLD won Myanmar's last free elections in 1990 but was never allowed to rule.