Hundreds of riot police armed with assault rifles and tear gas moved into position at sites in Rangoon, Burma, where protesters staged a bloody, pro-democracy demonstration a month ago Friday.

The sudden show of force after several weeks of relative quiet in the country's largest city appeared aimed at forestalling any protests to mark the one-month anniversary of a key day in the anti-regime uprising by Buddhist monks, activists and ordinary citizens.

Security in Burma, also known as Myanmar, was especially tight at the eastern gate of the famed Shwedagon pagoda where monks were beaten as police broke up a protest on Sept. 26.

Barbed wire was erected around the area while police also took up positions near the Sule Pagoda in the heart of the city and other sites of earlier protests.

Friday also marked the end of the Lent period, an important Buddhist holiday when monks can leave their monasteries to travel after several months of monsoon season retreats.

There were no immediate signs that any public protests would take place but thousands of pilgrims thronged to the Shwedagon and other pagodas.

A Burmese reporter who tried to take a photo of the pilgrims climbing up the eastern gate of the Shwedagon was immediately surrounded by nearly a dozen riot police and a police officer confiscated the flash card from the camera.

Minister meets with pro-democracy leader

The reappearance of heavy security in Rangoon came a day after detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi met with a newly appointed Burma government official, part of a UN-brokered attempt to nudge her and the military junta toward reconciliation.

It was the first known meeting between Suu Kyi — under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years — and "minister for relations," retired major general Aung Kyi, who was appointed to the post on Oct. 8 to hold talks with her.

"I hope this is the beginning of the [reconciliation] process," Nyan Win, spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, said Friday.

But some residents and Western diplomats remained skeptical, noting that such earlier meetings produced nothing and seemed merely aimed at easing international pressure on the junta.

Suu Kyi was driven Thursday a few minutes from her home to a government guest house, where she held talks with Aung Kyi between 2 p.m. and 3:15 p.m., state-run television reported, but gave no further details.

Television images showed Suu Kyi and Aung Kyi seated in high-backed chairs having a discussion, a scene that suggested two dignitaries in a meeting rather than someone under house arrest.

Need 'full reconciliation'

Appointing a liaison officer had been suggested by UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari during his Sept. 29-Oct. 2 visit to Burma, state media said. Gambari had met with junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe and Suu Kyi separately during his visit.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said "the meeting is a good thing, but not sufficient."

"There is a need for a full reconciliation process to start, a transition" to democracy, he told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.

Khalilzad said Suu Kyi "has to be in circumstances where she can consult, meet with her party members and have informed discussion with the government with regard to the transition, and those circumstances are not there."

He said the U.S. and the UN are trying to get India, China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to use their influence to encourage the government to change Suu Kyi's conditions, speed Gambari's return and release prisoners.

The UN has said Burma had agreed to move up the date of Gambari's next visit to early November from mid-November.

Crushed protest

Burma's government has been strongly criticized for sending troops to crush peaceful protests in late September.

The military junta said 10 people were killed, but diplomats and dissidents say the death toll is likely much higher. Thousands were arrested and the hunt for participants is reportedly continuing.

Burma's military has ruled the country since 1962. The current junta took power in 1988 after crushing the democracy movement led by Suu Kyi. In 1990, it refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi's party won a landslide election victory.

The protests in Burma began Aug. 19 after the government raised fuel prices in one of Asia's poorest countries.