BANGKOK (AFP) - UN envoy Razali Ismail will head for Burma this week as questions swirl about whether he can reinvigorate talks between the ruling junta and the democratic opposition.

The Malaysian diplomat is scheduled to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Rangoon early Tuesday and depart Dec 4, but further details about his itinerary have been kept tightly under wraps.

Sources in Rangoon told AFP that Razali would "certainly" try to meet with the same high-ranking junta officials as in previous missions while also holding fresh talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The historic dialogue that began last year has reached a virtual standstill in recent months, with both sides maintaining strict silence about the contents of the talks.

"There has been no statement because there is a great deal of frustration... but they are still in contact," said one local analyst.

Another informed source said recently that the dialogue was "not going as well as it was three months ago."

It would appear that Razali has a formidable challenge ahead of him as the junta and Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) are reportedly still firmly in the "confidence building" stage of the talks.

Sources say the former arch-enemies have a long way to go before reaching their ultimate objective of ushering in democracy and forming a civilian government.

The NLD and the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) are discussing only two issues at the moment - the freeing of political prisoners and the re-opening of NLD branch offices around the country, they have said.

Only 25 of the 40 original NLD branch offices have been authorised to re-open in RangoOn, in addition to their Mandalay headquarters and two other township offices.

Meanwhile Aung San Suu Kyi remains under loose house arrest, where she has been for the past 14 months.

Still, some officials have hinted at progress amid the apparent gridlock.

'Golden opportunity'

UN human rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who cut short a mission to Burma last month for health reasons, said earlier this month that both sides had made progress and had a "golden opportunity" for change.

And Burma's deputy foreign minister, Khin Maung Win, said that the pace of the talks seemed "a bit slow" for the outside world, but that "for us it is going reasonably well."

He added that the junta "knows very well that the military can't rule forever... we have no intention of clinging to power."

Rangoon sources say it is unclear whether Razali's visit will be affected by the sacking two weeks ago of seven high-ranking officials and the simultaneous consolidation of power among the junta's three top generals.

But Razali, the special envoy to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, has clearly been credited with bridging the gulf between the junta and the pro-democracy leader during his six trips to Myanmar since June 2000.

He has apparently succeeded in winning the confidence of both sides of the political divide, and driven a process which the international community hopes will lead to democratic reforms after 40 years of military rule.

At Razali's urging, some 186 pro-democracy dissidents have been released this year, although rights groups say some 1,500 more still languish in Burma's jails.

Both the European Union, which will soon send another of several missions to RangoOn, and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which released a critical report on forced labour after its October mission, are watching closely.