A UN envoy to Burma has met detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and says she is "in good spirits" and uninjured but does not know if she will be released.
International concern had grown over the health and whereabouts of the Nobel peace prize winner since violence erupted on May 30th as she was touring a provincial town in the north. She has been in detention since then.
Envoy Mr Razali Ismail had an hour-long meeting with Ms Suu Kyi today at the junta's headquarters in Yangon.
Before the meeting, Mr Razali hinted the junta had yet to be persuaded to release Ms Suu Kyi, saying he hoped to return "as soon as possible" to push for her freedom.
Diplomats told journalists earlier they expected Ms Suu Kyi to be returned to her lakeside residence in Yangon, where she has spent much of the past 14 years under house arrest.
Diplomatic pressure has mounted on the Burma government in recent days, with the United States, Britain and the European Union saying they were considering more trade and investment sanctions because of Suu Kyi's treatment.
Since May 30th, the junta has kept Ms Suu Kyi at undisclosed locations and confined leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) to their houses.