In two days of rare talks with Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the U.N. chief urged the reclusive 76-year-old autocrat to release Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and embark on democratic reforms ahead of elections scheduled for next year.

But their meetings Friday and Saturday in Naypyitaw, the junta’s remote administrative capital, left Ban saying that his diplomatic gambit had produced no immediate results and amounted to "a setback to the international community’s efforts to provide a helping hand to Myanmar."

"I am deeply disappointed that they have missed a very important opportunity," Ban said.

Aung San Suu Kyi (pronounced ong sahn SUE CHEE) has been detained by the ruling generals for nearly 14 of the past 20 years and is now on trial charged with violating her house arrest. The 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate faces five years in prison if convicted in a trial that has sparked global outrage.

"I pressed as hard as I could" to see Suu Kyi, Ban said after meeting with Than Shwe (pronounced TAHN SHWAY). "I had hoped that he would agree to my request, but it is regrettable that he did not."

Ban said Than Shwe expressed a commitment to hold credible elections sometime in 2010.