From Bangkokpost :

UN envoy to begin Burma trip Saturday

New York (dpa) - A UN envoy is to begin his trip to Burma Saturday to assess the crisis in that country where military authorities have cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrators, the United Nations said.

Burma's military junta agreed to receive Ibrahim Gambari, a UN spokeswoman said Thursday. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon received Burma's assurance that it would cooperate with Gambari, Marie Okabe said.

The pledge was made by Burma Foreign Minister Nyan Win, who was visiting New York and met with Ban, who called on Burma's government "to engage in a constructive dialogue" with Gambari "and to commit to a path of peaceful and inclusive national reconciliation," Ban's office said.

The United States demanded that Gambari be allowed to meet with all parties in the current turmoil, in which a week and a half of peaceful anti-government protests in Yangon have been met by the military junta with shootings, beatings and arrests.

Among those Gambari must be allowed access to are religious leaders, political detainees, and democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for years, the White House said.

US President George W Bush held an apparently unscheduled meeting Thursday with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi of China, one of Burma's only allies, and called on Beijing to use its influence with Burma's junta to encourage it to peacefully transition to democracy, the White House said.

[...]

continue reading