YANGON, August 4, 2008 (AFP) - The UN's new human rights envoy for Myanmar met senior Buddhist monks on Monday, as his first visit to the military-ruled nation got under way, a spokesman said.

United Nations special rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana, who took up his post in May, met Myanmar's seniormost monk, Chief of Sangha Nayaka, as well as other religious leaders at a Buddhist temple in Yangon, UN spokesman Aye Win told AFP.

Buddhist monks led mass anti-government protests in September that were violently put down by security forces who opened fire on crowds and beat people in the streets.

Aye Win did not say if any of the monks present at the meeting with Quintana had any role in the protests.

Quintana's predecessor, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, said in a report to the UN Human Rights Council in November that at least 31 people were killed and 74 remained missing after the crackdown.

He also said that about 1,850 political prisoners were behind bars, and that the government had 'accelerated' unlawful arrests.

Later Monday, Quintana spoke with Myanmar's ministers for social welfare and religious affairs, Aye Win said.

He also met the panel coordinating the relief effort for 2.4 million victims of Cyclone Nargis, which pounded Myanmar three months ago, the spokesman added.

The so-called Tripartite Core Group includes representatives of Myanmar's government, the United Nations, and other Southeast Asian countries. The panel was created to address concerns that the junta was stonewalling the relief effort.

Quintana plans Tuesday to visit the hardest-hit regions of the Irrawaddy Delta, which suffered most of the damage from the storm that left more than 138,000 dead or missing, according to a senior Myanmar official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Before his trip ends on Thursday, he also aims to meet senior state officials, ethnic groups and political parties, and try to open talks with the generals on improving their human rights record.

Human rights groups, foreign governments and the United Nations accuse the junta of a string of abuses, including suppressing the democracy movement, persecuting ethnic minorities and imprisoning dissidents.