Quintana said he had recommended the "progressive release" of political prisoners held by the military regime when he met Myanmar's minister for home affairs.
"The human rights situation is still challenging. It is difficult for me to affirm that the human rights situation has improved," Quintana told reporters before flying out from Yangon.
Quintana, who arrived in the Southeast Asian nation on Saturday, said he had met five political prisoners during a four-hour visit to the notorious Insein prison in Yangon. He also met chief justice Aung Toe, he said.
The regime has handed out heavy jail terms to dozens of pro-democracy activists in recent months, many of them involved in protests led by Buddhist monks that erupted in 2007.
Quintana's visit is expected to pave the way for a possible trip later in the year by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
Quintana said he planned to return to Myanmar in December.
The UN's Special Envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, was in Myanmar last month and met detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi but failed to secure a meeting with Myanmar's head of state Senior General Than Shwe.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the last 19 years under detention by the junta that has ruled the country since 1962. Her National League of Democracy won a landslide election victory in 1990 that the junta refused to recognise.
The regime has promised to hold elections in 2010, but critics have dismissed the polls as a sham.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said earlier this week that US President Barack Obama's administration was looking for a better way to bring change to Myanmar.
"We are conducting a review of our policy," Clinton said in Tokyo when asked whether there was an alternative to sanctions.
Former US President George W. Bush's administration strengthened decade-old sanctions against Myanmar.
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