YANGON - UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, hoping to promote democratic reform in Myanmar, will extend his five-day visit until Saturday in an apparent effort to meet detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ms Suu Kyi failed to appear at a scheduled meeting Wednesday amid speculation that she may be dissatisfied with the United Nations' hitherto fruitless efforts to affect change in the military-ruled nation.

Dr Gambari's five earlier visits beginning in mid-2006 failed to forge either a dialogue between Ms Suu Kyi and the military or secure her release from more than 12 years under house arrest. He usually met Ms Suu Kyi on the previous trips.

A government official, who demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said that Dr Gambari would depart Myanmar on Saturday rather than Friday as originally scheduled.

Two Gambari aides were seen by neighbors outside the gate of Suu Kyi's residence Friday morning, shouting Dr Gambari's name. They left when nobody came out to meet them.

Dr Gambari and Ms Suu Kyi were to have met on Wednesday at a guest house but the Nobel Peace Prize laureate did not come. Neither the UN nor the government have said anything about the aborted meeting.

'We don't really know the reason why she did not meet Mr Gambari. But we knew that she was unhappy with the situation,' said Mr Nyan Win, spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.

'She sets a time limit for everything and she may be unhappy with something,' he said, without elaborating.

While allowing Dr Gambari and other UN officials into the country, the junta says it will follow its own so-called 'road map to democracy' which includes elections in 2010 under a recently promulgated Constitution which guarantees the military will maintain its grip on power. -- AP