Top UN official to again visit Myanmar's Suu Kyi

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 8 (Reuters) Senior UN official Ibrahim Gambari, the last outsider to see Myanmar's detained opposition leader, will meet with her again during his next visit to the isolated Southeast Asian nation later this week, a UN official said.

''The government has given assurances that he will be able to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi'' during Gambari's November 9-12 visit, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity surrounding his visit.

Gambari heads the UN Department of Political Affairs. Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate and leader of Myanmar's National League for Democracy, has been under house arrest for more than 10 of the last 17 years.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, and the government has ignored a 1990 landslide election victory by Suu Kyi's party.

Gambari became the first foreigner to see Suu Kyi in more than two years when he was allowed to hold an hour-long meeting with her at a Yangon guest house in May.

The contact, a week before Suu Kyi's house arrest was due to expire, led to optimism that the generals in charge of the former Burma might be about to release her.

However, they extended her detention by another year despite a direct appeal from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Annan, in a statement read by UN chief spokesman Stephane Dujarric, said he hoped Gambari's visit could lead to greater cooperation between the United Nations and Myanmar.

''The secretary-general emphasizes, however, that the continued value of such engagement can only be demonstrated by tangible steps forward on central issues such as human rights, democratic reform and national reconciliation,'' Dujarric said.

REUTERS DH BST0554