The head of Myanmar’s military junta told a UN envoy this week that he is willing to meet with Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but with certain preconditions, the state media reported on Thursday.

It also said nearly 2,100 people were arrested in last week’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy activists, and almost 700 have been released.

Senior Gen Than Shwe told UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari during their talks on Tuesday that he is willing to meet Suu Kyi if she gives up her calls for confronting the government and for imposing sanctions on it, Myanmar state TV and radio reported.

Than Shwe told Gambari that “in her dealings with the government, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has called for confrontation, utter devastation, economic sanctions and all other sanctions”, state media said.

“If she abandons these calls, Senior Gen Than Shwe told Mr Gambari that he will personally meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” the media said. Daw is a term of respect for older women.

Suu Kyi has said in the past that she supports economic sanctions against the military junta, but she has not publicly called for devastation of her homeland or the government.

Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, scoffed at the general’s offer. “Applying such conditions shows that the government is not really sincere about meeting her,” he said. NLD executives are allowed no contact with Suu Kyi.

Than Shwe’s preconditions are not new — the junta has regularly called on Suu Kyi to give up her confrontational attitude — but it is the first time the junta leader has said he is willing to meet with her.

The latest move is remarkable given that Than Shwe has a visceral dislike for the Nobel peace laureate and is said to get angry even at the mention of her name. Suu Kyi, who has spent nearly 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest, is not known to have met a senior junta leader since 2002.

The reports gave no indication that the junta was prepared to lift restrictions on Suu Kyi or on members of her NLD party, which has often called for a dialogue with the government but has been rebuffed. Suu Kyi’s party won national elections in 1990 but the generals refused to give up power.

Gambari on Tuesday ended a four-day trip to Myanmar in a bid to persuade the junta to end its crackdown on pro-democracy activists. He is scheduled to brief UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon later on Thursday.

Ban himself has said that Gambari’s mission could not be termed a success even though the envoy delivered “the strongest possible message” to Myanmar's military leaders.

China, Myanmar’s closest ally, praised the meeting between Than Shwe and Gambari, and appealed to all parties in the country to remain calm and resume stability “as soon as possible”.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a statement that Beijing has “made its own efforts to support the UN Secretary-General and his Myanmar special envoy’s negotiations”. It did not elaborate.

In the meantime, soldiers maintained a visible presence on the streets of Yangon on Thursday.

A foreign aid worker said his staff had told him that soldiers are continuing to raid homes at night to arrest people who took part in the demonstrations. Neighbours are alerting each other if they see troops coming, he said.

Meanwhile, a UN Development Program employee, Myint Nwe Moe, and her husband, brother-in-law and driver were freed on Thursday, a day after being arrested, said Charles Petrie, the UN humanitarian chief in Myanmar.

With Internet access to the outside world blocked, state-controlled newspapers churned out the government’s version of the country’s crisis and filled pages with propaganda slogans, such as “We favour stability. We favor peace”, and “We oppose unrest and violence”.

Critics from the international community and foreign media were dismissed as “liars attempting to destroy the nation” — one of many bold-faced slogans covering The New Light of Myanmar newspaper’s back page on Thursday.

Anti-junta demonstrations broke out in mid-August over a fuel price increase, then grew when monks took the lead last month. But the military crushed the protests with gunfire, tear gas and clubs starting on September 26. The government said 10 people were killed, but dissident groups put the death toll at up to 200 and say 6,000 people were detained, including thousands of monks.

State TV and radio said 2,093 were arrested under the emergency law that was invoked on September 25, banning assembly of more than five people. It said 692 have been released.

The demonstrators were arrested under three categories: people who were actively involved in the protests, those who supported the protesters, and those who inadvertently took part.