Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, met military-ruled Burma’s powerful army chief on Friday and pressed him to free Nobel Prize-winning democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners ahead of promised parliamentary elections next year.

In his two-hour meeting with reclusive Senior-General Than Shwe, Mr Ban held wide-ranging talks about the challenges facing Burma, an impoverished country treated as a semi-pariah for its ruthless suppression of dissent.