Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council Senior-General Than Shwe met with visiting Ali Alatas, Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, here Friday morning.

So far, both sides have not yet disclosed the details about their meetings.

Alatas, who is the special envoy on the UN reform for Asia and the Pacific and also former Indonesian Foreign Minister, had met with Myanmar Foreign Minister U Nyan Win on Thursday when Alatas arrived on a three-day visit, said Friday's official media.

Alatas last came to Myanmar in September 2003 as a special envoy of then Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Alatas was the second UN official visiting Myanmar during this year after Chief of the UN World Food Program (WFP) James Morris who came early this month to review and discuss ways of carrying out the organization's humanitarian operations in Myanmar.

Earlier last April, Than Shwe met with Annan in Indonesia on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Afro-Asian Summit, during which Than Shwe officially extended an invitation to Annan to visit Myanmar.

Observers here expected that Alatas's present trip is to coordinate with the Myanmar side for Annan's forthcoming Yangon trip.

Previously, Annan's special envoy Razali Ismail and UN Human Rights rapporteur Paulo Sergio Pinheiro last came in March 2004 and November 2003 respectively. Both of them are not allowed to visit Yangon again.

Source: Xinhua