Junta chief willing to talk with Suu Kyi

Hoping to deflect outrage over images of soldiers gunning down protesters, Myanmar’s hard-line leader announced Thursday that he was willing to talk with detained democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi -- but only if she stopped calling for international sanctions.

Gen. Than Shwe also insists that Suu Kyi give up urging fellow citizens to confront the regime, state television and radio said in reporting on the conditions set by the junta leader during a meeting this week with a United Nations special envoy.

The move appears aimed at staving off economic sanctions and keeping Myanmar’s natural resources on world markets, while also keeping neighbor China happy.

The announcement came hours before special envoy Ibrahim Gambari briefed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon about his four-day trip to Myanmar, also known as Burma. A U.N. spokeswoman in New York could not confirm the Myanmar state media’s account of the discussion between Than Shwe and Gambari.

State media also gave new figures Thursday for the number of people arrested during last week’s crackdown on the biggest anti-government protests in nearly two decades. The reports said nearly 2,100 people had been detained, with almost 700 already released.

Myanmar has said 10 people were killed, but dissident groups put the figure as high as 200 and say 6,000 people were held, including Buddhist monks.