UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari met the leader of Burma's military junta today in a bid to end a bloody crackdown on the biggest democracy protests in 20 years.
There was no immediate word on whether Mr Gambari had succeeded in persuading the General Than Shwe (74) to withdraw troops from the streets or start talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Gen Shwe has so far appeared deaf to international calls for restraint, posting troops and police across Rangoon and dispatching pro-junta gangs to raid homes in search of monks and dissidents on the run.
US charge d'affaires in Rangoon Shari Villarosa
US charge d'affaires Shari Villarosa said from Rangoon that arrests continued unabated.
Mr Gambari flew to Naypyidaw, new jungle capital of the country renamed Myanmar by the junta, to convey international outrage at last week's crushing of monk-led protests against decades of military rule and deepening poverty.
Mr Gambari then flew out of the country after a second session of talks with Ms Suu Kyi.
Apart from meeting three minister-generals and Ms Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest, it was not clear how Mr Gambari had spent his three days in Burma. Even UN officials were unable to explain his itinerary.
The UN Security Council, which endorsed the former Nigerian foreign minister's emergency visit, is hoping the mission will start some sort of dialogue between the junta - the latest face of 45 years of military rule - and Ms Suu Kyi, the 62-year-old Nobel peace laureate.
Security forces have scaled down their presence in Rangoon, the country's main city, which remained quiet after troops and police quelled the mass protests fronted by Buddhist monks last week.
Dissident groups say up to 200 protesters were murdered, compared with the regime's report of 10 deaths, and 6,000 detained.
Last night, Burma's Nyan Win told the United Nations General Assembly in New York that "foreign elements" were to blame for the violence.
"Normalcy has now returned in Myanmar," he said, adding that security forces acted with restraint for a month but had to take action to "restore the situation".
"Recent events make clear that there are elements within and outside the country who wish to derail the ongoing process [towards democracy] so that they can take advantage of the chaos that would follow," he said.