UN chief seeks meeting with Suu Kyi

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrives in Burma (AP)

The UN secretary-general said Burma's junta chief has rejected his initial request to see jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ban Ki-moon emerged from a two-hour meeting with Burma's reclusive Senior General Than Shwe, and said he still hoped to meet the 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate before he leaves the country on Saturday.

"I told him that I wanted to meet her, but he told me that she is (on) trial. But I told him that this is my proposal, and this is important, and I'm waiting for their reply," he said.

The two met in Naypyitaw, the junta's remote administrative capital.

If Mr Ban is allowed to meet with Ms Suu Kyi, he will be the first UN secretary-general to do so since her first period of detention started in 1989.

Ms Suu Kyi has been in detention for nearly 14 of the past 20 years, mostly under house arrest.

In May, she was charged with violating the terms of her house arrest when an uninvited American man swam secretly to her lakeside home in May and stayed for two days. She has pleaded not guilty and faces five years in prison if convicted.

The trial has sparked outrage from world leaders, Hollywood celebrities, other Nobel laureates and human rights groups who said the military-controlled government is using the bizarre incident as an excuse to keep Ms Suu Kyi behind bars through elections scheduled for 2010.

The elections are part of the junta's "roadmap to democracy," which critics say is a sham designed to cement the military's four-decade grip on power.

Mr Ban said he also urged Than Shwe to "accelerate the process of democratisation" and reiterated calls for the junta to free its estimated 2,100 political prisoners ahead of the elections.