Burma has ended months of delays by setting a date for the visit of Asean special envoy and Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar to check on democratic reforms, he told AFP today.

Syed Hamid said he would visit this month but that the date of the trip would remain a secret to avoid excess publicity.

"A date has been firmed for my visit this month," he said.

Syed Hamid was originally due to visit in January but Burma's military government said it was too busy relocating the national capital to receive him.

The visit has apparently stalled on the envoy's insistence on meeting pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the last 16 years in jail or under house arrest.

Asked if he was hoping to meet the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Syed Hamid said he was going with an "open mind."

Hope to build trust

"I am going there with an open mind. I would like to meet everyone involved in the reform process," he said.

But he cautioned against hopes of a breakthrough.

"I would not put any expectations. I hope it is part of a confidence building mechanism. We hope to build trust. Ultimately, it will be Myanmar's own process (towards democracy)," he said.

Burma is under heavy international pressure to instigate democratic reforms.

The junta brutally crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988 and two years later rejected the result of national elections won by Aung San Suu Kyi.

The 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) decided to send Sayed Hamid to Burma at its annual meeting in December.