"There's been an evolution in his programme. The initial pitch was minimalist. It's got a bit better, and we want to see it get better still," Canning told Reuters.
DETERMINED TO MEET JUNTA LEADER
The U.N. made clear on Sunday Gambari did not plan to leave without seeing Than Shwe, whose troops are stationed on street corners across Yangon, making it impossible even for small crowds of demonstrators to assemble.
In a sign the junta was confident it had squeezed the life out of the uprising, barbed-wire barricades were removed from the Shewdagon Pagoda, rallying point for monks leading the marches.
Soldiers and government security men, however, were searching bags and people for cameras, and the Internet, through which images of the crackdown have reached the world, remained cut.
State-run media say order was restored "with care, using the least possible force", but soldiers continued to be stationed at the four corners of Shwedagon, the country's holiest Buddhist shrine, as well as the Sule Pagoda, the other focal point of the rallies.
Having raided more than a dozen monasteries and hauled off at least 700 monks, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission, soldiers and riot police are penning the rest behind the monastery walls.
The protests began with small marches against fuel price rises in mid-August but intensified when soldiers fired over the heads of protesting monks, causing monasteries to mobilise.
The crackdown prompted criticism even from China, the closest the junta has to an ally, and condemnation from the Association of South East Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member.
Among 10 people the junta says were killed, the death of a Japanese video journalist, Kenji Nagai, 50, shot dead when troops opened fire on a crowd of chanting protesters, has added to the international outrage.
A Japanese envoy has arrived to ensure a full investigation into his death, although Tokyo says the small video camera he was clutching as he died near the Sule Pagoda was missing from items returned by Myanmar officials.
Footage smuggled out of the country appeared to show a soldier shooting Nagai at point-blank range.
Western governments say the death toll is probably far higher than officially acknowledged.
