Burma's junta showed its contempt for the rest of the world yesterday by yet again delaying a meeting with the UN's special envoy.

Ibrabim Gambari has been in the country since Saturday, vainly trying to talk to leader General Than Shwe about the brutal repression of last week's anti-government protests.

Instead he has been shunted among a series of minor officials and yesterday was shipped to a remote northern town for an academic conference.

In previous sparring with the UN and other bodies, Burma's junta has repeatedly snubbed envoys.

In Rangoon yesterday, troops removed roadblocks and shifted to the outskirts, apparently easing their stranglehold on the city, but riot police were still checking cars and buses and monitoring the city by helicopter.

Public anger ignited last month after the government increased fuel prices, then last week shifted into mass protests led by Buddhist monks against 45 years of military dictatorship.

Soldiers responded by opening fire on unarmed demonstrators. The government says ten people were killed but dissident groups say anywhere from several dozen people to as many as 200 died in the crackdown.

They also say several thousand people have been detained, including many monks who were dragged out of their monasteries and locked up.

Many demonstrators are being reportedly held in makeshift prisons in old factories, a race track and universities around Rangoon.

In Rangoon there was a stong feeling yesterday that the biggest anti-democracy protests since 1988 had failed.

Internet access was restricted and mobile phone service was sporadic for a fourth day in a row