(BBC News) Burma's military rulers have appointed an official to liaise with detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in an apparent concession to the UN. Aung Kyi, a retired general serving as deputy labour minister, would "continue relations [with her] in the future", state TV said late on Monday.

The appointment was intended to achieve "smooth relations" with the detained leader, a state daily said on Tuesday.

A UN envoy visiting after September's bloody crackdown suggested the move. Ibrahim Gambari was despatched to Burma after the military used force to end days of anti-government protests.

The government said 10 people died, but diplomats believe the toll was much higher. Thousands more are thought to have been detained. A BBC correspondent has heard fresh accounts of the military's brutality. Our correspondent, who spent three days undercover in Rangoon and met two fugitive monks, heard in one neighbourhood that the army had disposed of the bodies of monks killed during the crackdown by burning them in the local crematorium.