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UNITED NATIONS : UN chief Ban Ki-moon was Thursday briefed by his envoy Ibrahim Gambari on his mission to Myanmar, as China insisted that the crisis in the Southeast Asian country was an internal matter that poses no threat to the region.
The 15-member Security Council meanwhile agreed after closed-door consultations on the format of its own encounter with Gambari planned for Friday.
Gambari, just back from an Asian trip that took him to Myanmar and Singapore, reported to Ban at a private meeting here which began shortly after 5pm (2200 GMT).
The two men shook hands for photographers but made no comment.
Gambari was to brief the Security Council from 10 am (1400 GMT) Friday before speaking to reporters later in the day.
China's UN envoy Wang Guangya for his part welcomed "good efforts" by both Gambari and Myanmar authorities to defuse the volatile situation but reiterated that China's stance on Myanmar was unchanged.
He told reporters that Beijing still opposed punitive measures against the military junta and rejected suggestions that the bloody crackdown on dissent in Myanmar represented a threat to regional peace and security.
"There is a crisis but this does not constitute a threat, in the (UN) Charter's definition, to the region and to international peace and security," the Chinese envoy said. "Therefore we feel this issue does not belong to the Security Council but the council can play a role to help."
"The problems in Myanmar are basically internal. No internationally-imposed solution can help the situation," Wang said. "Ambassador Gambari's mission is to help a process where we can find a way to solve these problems."
Last January, China and Russia vetoed a draft resolution in the Security Council that would have urged Myanmar's rulers to free all political detainees and end sexual violence by the military.
They then also argued that the Myanmar issue did not represent a threat to international peace and security and was best handled by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council.
Meanwhile, Ghana's UN Ambassador Leslie Christian, who chairs the council this month, said that after Thursday's consultations members reached a compromise deal on the format of Friday's briefing.
He said Gambari would make his briefing in an open session which will also be attended by Ban and representatives of Myanmar as well as of Singapore, the latter in its capacity as president of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes Myanmar.
ASEAN played a key role in persuading Myanmar's military junta to receive Gambari and allow him to meet with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Christian said that after the briefing, council members would hold closed-door consultations with Gambari to discuss sensitive matters.
During Thursday's session, the United States and some of its European allies pushed for full transparency about what Gambari discussed with Myanmar's ruling generals and what he obtained.
But China, Russia and South Africa pressed for a closed-door briefing to allow Gambari to speak more frankly, diplomats said.
Wang said he would have preferred a closed-door briefing to allow Gambari "to speak more frankly and also for council members to have an exchange in a more frank way."
Gambari was sent to Myanmar to try to end the military junta's crackdown on mass protests led by Buddhist monks, which left at least 13 dead and more than 2,000 arrested. - AFP/ch
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