YANGON - UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari arrived in Myanmar on Friday to prepare for a visit by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon against the backdrop of the ongoing trial of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

During his two-day trip Gambari is set to meet senior figures from the ruling junta but there were no immediate plans to see Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi or members of her political party, Myanmar officials said.

Mr Gambari touched down in the main city of Yangon on a commercial flight and was immediately driven to his hotel in a UN vehicle without making any comment about his visit, witnesses said.

He was due to fly to the junta's administrative capital of Naypyidaw later Friday for talks with members of the military regime and would return to Yangon on Saturday to meet officials from the foreign ministry, officials said.

Mr Gambari is to brief the UN chief on the outcome of his mission and Ban will then decide whether to go ahead with plans to visit Myanmar early next month, according to UN sources in New York.

The UN boss and Mr Gambari have been trying to persuade Myanmar's ruling generals to free all political detainees, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and to steer their country on the path to democracy and national reconciliation.

Ms Suu Kyi, 64, is being held in jail on charges of violating her house arrest after an American man, John Yettaw, swam to her lakeside house earlier this year. She risks up to five years in jail if convicted.

She has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention since the ruling generals refused to recognise the landslide victory of her National League for Democracy (NLD) in 1990 elections.

Ms Suu Kyi's party spokesman and lawyer Nyan Win said her trial would continue at Insein prison on Friday, adding he did not yet know if Mr Gambari would meet with the detained democracy leader.

'We will go to the trial at Insein prison today at 10am. Like his previous visit he might meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi but we haven't got any information yet,' Nyan Win told AFP. -- AFP