Myanmar to receive UN official

The ruling generals in Myanmar have agreed to the first visit by the UN's top human rights official in four years, the UN said on Monday.

The announcement comes in the aftermath of a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that left at least 13 people dead and intensified international criticism of the military junta.

The junta agreed to a visit by Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN special rapporteur on human rights, and suggested that it take place before a regional summit in Singapore next month, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said.

The UN's top envoy on Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, is also scheduled for a return visit to the country next month amid a flurry of diplomatic efforts to put pressure on the junta.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has been in the international spotlight since pro-democracy protests spearheaded by the country's revered Buddhist monks were put down by the regime.

Approximately 3,000 people were rounded up and detained -- many of them monks -- and at least 13 people were killed. The military, which has run the country with an iron fist since 1962, has repeatedly quashed any shows of dissent.

Pinheiro has not been allowed to visit the country since 2003. The UN spokeswoman said Myanmar had suggested that he come before November's ASEAN summit.

Myanmar's Foreign Minister Nyan Win confirmed the offer in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday, she said.

In an appearance at the UN in New York earlier this month, the foreign minister blamed the bloodshed in his country on "political opportunists" backed by "powerful countries."

Protests with only a small number of demonstrators erupted in August when the regime doubled the price of fuel overnight, leaving many people in the impoverished nation unable even to afford transport to get to work.

The protests over the fuel prices mushroomed into mass demonstrations against the regime after the monks took up the cause. In the last two or three days before they were quashed, the marches drew an estimated 100,000 people to the streets.

The demonstrations were the biggest challenge to the regime in 20 years.

Their suppression has unleashed a wave of international criticism and sanctions against the regime, which has kept opposition leader and Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for most of the last 18 years.

The junta has repeatedly insisted it will act on its "road map" for democracy, but international critics have called the process a sham.

Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), which won elections in 1990 but was never allowed to govern, said it welcomed Pinheiro's visit.

"We hope to meet him," NLD spokesman Han Thar Myint said.

Meanwhile Gambari, the UN envoy on Myanmar who visited the country last month to express outrage over the crackdown, is also expecting to return in November.

The US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, told reporters on Monday that Washington was working with the UN, China, India, ASEAN and European allies to get Gambari back into the country as soon as possible.

"It's urgent that Mr Gambari be allowed to come into Burma, to facilitate in the reconciliation that is necessary and in the transition to a new order that's necessary for Burma [Myanmar] to become a normal state," he said.