YANGON: UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari was expected to meet Wednesday with Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, sources in her National League for Democracy (NLD) party said.

"He will meet with Aung San Suu Kyi this morning," one party source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Party spokesman Nyan Win said he could not confirm the meeting, but said that Gambari was scheduled to meet with other top NLD officials on Wednesday afternoon.

Gambari arrived here Monday on a mission to relaunch talks between the detained Nobel peace prize winner and the ruling government.

After the military's deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks last September, the ruling government sought to ease international outrage by appointing a liaison officer, labour minister Aung Kyi, to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi.

But the two have not met since January, when the democracy leader complained about the slow pace of their talks.

Gambari last visited Myanmar in March on a mission that UN officials later described as "disappointing," after the government publicly rebuffed his calls for political reform and rejected his offer to send election monitors for a referendum that approved a new constitution in May.

So far Gambari has met with Foreign Minister Nyan Win - no relation of the NLD spokesman - as well as Information Minister Kyaw Hsan.

He has also met with officials coordinating the relief effort for 2.4 million victims of Cyclone Nargis, which left 138,000 dead or missing in early May. Gambari toured one part of the cyclone zone on Tuesday.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962. The NLD won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the government has never allowed them to take office.

- AFP/yb