UN special envoy arrives to disappointment at Singapore summit

ASEAN SUMMIT

Singapore (dpa) - UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari arrived in Singapore Tuesday after South-East Asian leaders scrapped his key address to a regional summit on military-ruled Burma.

Gambari was supposed to brief leaders of 16 countries at the East Asian Summit - led by the 10-country Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEN) - but the event was cancelled Monday night after Burma stressed that he should only report to the United Nations.

He instead is to hold bilateral meetings with the leaders.

So far, the leaders of the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Australia and Malaysia have scheduled meetings with Gambari, who has made two visits to Burma since a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Rangoon in September.

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