Myanmar says UN chief will attend peace talks

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon will attend a landmark peace conference in Myanmar this month, an official and a rebel group said yesterday, bolstering Aung San Suu Kyi's drive to end decades of fighting.

Several complex ethnic conflicts are rumbling across Myanmar's borderlands, hampering efforts to expand the economy after the end of junta rule.

Suu Kyi has made peace a flagship policy of her newly installed civilian-led government.

It is a tall order in a country where the military, which is loathed by many ethnic rebel groups, still retains significant control.

Five-day talks are slated to kick off on August 31.