Singapore says hope in Myanmar rests on UN envoy

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - If a senior U.N. envoy fails to convince Myanmar's ruling junta to begin reconciliation talks, unrest in the Asian nation "could become quite dreadful," Singapore's foreign minister said on Friday.

The junta, facing a wave of national protests against its rule, has agreed to a visit by Ibrahim Gambari, a U.N. undersecretary-general. The U.N. Security Council has endorsed the visit, expected to begin on Saturday, in hopes Gambari can convince the junta to start a dialogue with the opposition.

Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yong-Boon Yeo said he believed the government would "be restrained in what it does" during the visit of Gambari, a Nigerian professor.

"But then the demonstrators may come out in full force. Then there could be heightened tension as a result," Yeo told reporters after meeting Foreign Minister David Miliband.

"If he fails, then the situation can become quite dreadful," Yeo said. "He's the best hope we have. He is trusted on both sides."

Myanmar's military government has raided Buddhist monasteries as it seeks to crush the protests. Facing international condemnation, the government appears to have cut off public access to the Internet, through which much of the news about the crackdown reached the rest of the world.

Miliband said the first step was that Gambari should "reach the highest level of the regime and to see the opposition." He should then "create a political process that offers a viable, sustainable and stable future for Burma," Miliband said.

Both Yeo and Miliband said Gambari needed to visit Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader held under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years after her party's decisive election victory in 1990.