BEIJING, CHINA - Sanctions against Myanmar's military junta are not helpful, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said here Friday following meetings with Chinese leaders.

"China and Thailand do not believe in sanctions," Abhisit told reporters in Beijing.

"We do not believe that isolating or alienating the Myanmar government - in particular from the international community - will help Myanmar achieve what I think we want to see achieved.

"The international community can only get access (to Myanmar) through the role of neighbours like Thailand that continue to engage with Myanmar," said Abhisit, who is on the third day of a four-day China visit.

Abhisit had earlier Friday met with President Hu Jintao. He met with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on Thursday.

UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari arrived in Myanmar on Friday to pave the way for a possible visit by the world body's Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that will focus on the trial of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

During his two-day trip Gambari is set to meet senior figures from the ruling junta but there were no immediate plans for him to see Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi or members of her political party, Myanmar officials said.

Ban and Gambari have been trying to persuade Myanmar's ruling generals to free all political detainees, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and to steer their country on the path to democracy.

Aung San Suu Kyi, 64, is being held in jail on charges of violating her house arrest after an American man, John Yettaw, swam uninvited to her lakeside home earlier this year. She faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

She has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention since the ruling generals refused to recognise the landslide victory of her National League for Democracy party in 1990 elections.

China is particularly close to Myanmar, and has in the past vetoed United Nations Security Council resolutions against its isolated neighbour.