UN chief begins mission in Burma

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has arrived in Burma in a bid to seek the release of political prisoners including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Mr Ban will hold talks with Burma's military leader Gen Than Shwe.

Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate, has spent much of the past two decades in prison or under house arrest.

Her trial on charges of breaking the terms of her house arrest is about to resume after an interruption of more than a month.

Ms Suu Kyi's lawyers have been appealing against the judge's ban on testimony from three defence witnesses. One additional defence witness will now be allowed to testify.

International outrage

The trial of 64-year-old Ms Suu Kyi has caused outrage around the world.

Aung San Suu Kyi is head of the National League for Democracy party

Critics of Burma's military government have dismissed it as a ruse to keep the opposition leader locked up until after next year's election.

The BBC's Jonathan Head says Mr Ban's two-day visit is risky - coinciding with the resumption of Ms Suu Kyi's trial - but he is calculating he will get meaningful concessions from Burma's military rulers.

Although previous UN visits have been unsuccessful, it is possible the country's leaders are looking for a face-saving way out, and Mr Ban could be the person to deliver it, our correspondent says.

He has called for the immediate release of all Burma's political prisoners, thought to number more than 2,000.

"Through my meetings... I will convey exactly what the international community expects and wishes [regarding] the way they want to see changes in Myanmar [Burma]," he told reporters in Singapore before his departure.

The secretary general may be rewarded with the release of a small number, but our correspondent says that will not appease critics who argue he shouldn't be making this visit at all.

Suu Kyi request

It is not clear if Mr Ban will be allowed to meet Ms Suu Kyi, although he is due to meet members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) and other opposition activists.

Time and again, the UN has politely requested Aung San Suu Kyi's release Kenneth Roth Human Rights Watch executive director

"I will try to meet with representatives of all registered political parties including Aung San Suu Kyi, that's my hope," he said, adding that he would ask for the meeting at his talks with Gen Than Shwe.

UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari "clearly conveyed" his wish to meet her when he visited Burma last week, he said.

Ms Suu Kyi was transferred from house arrest to prison in May after an American man swam to her lake-side house. She faces up to five years in jail if convicted.

The NLD leader led a revolt against Burmese dictator Gen Ne Win in 1988, calling for peaceful democratic reform and free elections.

But her movement was brutally suppressed by the army, which seized power in a coup on 18 September 1988.

The military government called national elections in May 1990 which the NLD won convincingly but the junta refused to hand over control, and has remained in power ever since.

Human Rights Watch said Mr Ban should not accept the return of Ms Suu Kyi to house arrest as a sign of a successful visit.

"Time and again, the UN has politely requested Aung San Suu Kyi's release, but her 'release' back to house arrest would be a huge failure," said executive director Kenneth Roth.