The United Nations maintained silence Tuesday on the latest Burmese military government announcement that opposition leaders would not be involved in the drafting of the new constitution, even as the United States came out with a statement condemning it.

“[It] makes clear that Snr-Gen Than Shwe and his regime have no intention to begin a genuine, inclusive dialogue necessary for a democratic transition with these [opposition] parties as called for by the international community, including Burma’s neighbors, UN adviser Ibrahim Gambari, Asean and the UN Security Council,” the US State Department said.

The State Department said it condemned the Burmese regime’s rejection of meaningful participation for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratic and ethnic minority leaders in the process of drafting a national constitution. It reiterated its call for the junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi and other detainees and political prisoners as a necessary condition for a genuine dialogue with democratic and ethnic minority groups in transition to a civilian, democratic government in Burma.

However, when asked about the announcement made by the junta in Rangoon on Monday in this regard, the spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, Michael Montas, said he preferred not to comment on the issue.

Instead he said, “We should hear shortly from Gambari. As you know, he is in New York right now, and he should be meeting shortly for consultations, certainly with the Secretary-General, and he will be meeting also with the General Assembly, as far as I know, and with the Security Council.”

However, during the day, Gambari met the president of the General Assembly, Srgjan Kerim, and briefed him on his just-concluded trip to the Southeast Asian region, including Vietnam and Cambodia. He also met Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is scheduled to visit the region next week as part of his trip to attend the Bali Conference on climate change. Ban will also visit Thailand and East Timor during the trip in which Burma is likely to be a major issue on his agenda.

At a press conference, the Security Council President for December, Ambassador Marcello Spatafora of Italy, said Gambari would be visiting Burma again either towards the end of this month or at the beginning of next month. At the same time, he said, he was not sure if Gambari would be briefing the Security Council at this point in time, as the UN envoy has not visited Burma since he briefed the Council last month.