Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar is set to make his long-delayed visit to Burma to check on democratic reforms tomorrow, diplomats told AFP .

Both Malaysian and Burma officials have kept the date a closely guarded secret to avoid excessive publicity after previous trips to Rangoon were delayed by the junta.

But diplomats in Rangoon said Syed Hamid would arrive on Thursday and stay until Friday or Saturday. They said he was unlikely to meet with detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"It is highly unlikely that he will meet her," one diplomat said Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

Too busy relocating

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 had 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.

The diplomats would not say why Syed Hamid had apparently relented on that demand.

Burma is under heavy international pressure to undertake 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.