A United Nations official who held a rare meeting with Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Sunday she seemed "reasonably well" and alert, but that she needs more regular medical attention.
Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, met Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi for an hour at a government guesthouse in Yangon on Saturday.
"She is reasonably well, considering that she has been in detention for 10 of the last 17 years or so. Of course, she needs to be allowed to see her doctors more regularly," Gambari said as he arrived in Bangkok after a four-day visit to Myanmar.
Gambari said he held "frank, constructive" discussions with Myanmar's military junta leaders, including talks about Suu Kyi's continued detention. The United Nations has repeatedly called for the release of the 61-year-old Nobel laureate and opposition leader.
Gambari was on a four-day visit to press the government in Myanmar to adopt human rights and political reforms.
He said he was "conveying a message" to Suu Kyi from the head of the Myanmay's ruling military junta, according to two diplomats who attended a briefing with the U.N. official earlier on Saturday.
The junta refuses to talk to Suu Kyi or her party.
Myanmar's junta took power in 1988 after crushing the democracy movement led by Suu Kyi.
In 1990, it refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi's party won a landslide election victory.
The 61-year-old political prisoner has spent 11 of the last 17 years in detention, mostly under house arrest.
Before meeting with Suu Kyi, Gambari met Senior General Than Shwe at the new administrative capital, Naypyidaw, 250 miles north of Yangon.
The meeting was attended by top junta leaders.
Gambari also met with senior members of Suu Kyi's party, who reiterated their stance that she wanted to open a dialogue with the junta and that the opposition party considered talks a crucial step towards political reconciliation in the country, said a party spokesman.
Gambari's visit came two months after the U.N. Security Council took the historic step of putting the country on its agenda in September, meaning that Myanmar's ruling junta is subject to greater U.N. scrutiny.
The U.S. has said it plans to introduce a resolution on Myanmar to the Security Council this year.
U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said Washington would wait until after Gambari's visit before deciding on the contents of the resolution.
Ahead of Gambari's visit, which began on Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he wanted the trip to produce "tangible steps forward" on human rights, democratic reforms and national reconciliation in Myanmar.