Nov 16, 2009, 9:26 GMT
Yangon - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has asked to meet the leader of the ruling military junta in a possible sign of easing political tension.
Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, told General Than Shwe that she would like to meet the senior generals with the aim of working together to help the country. The message was conveyed in a letter seen Monday by the German Press Agency dpa.
She also asked to meet the executive committee of her National League for Democracy in her own house. The letter did not mention the possibility of political talks, but stressed the need to 'cooperate.'
Her attorney, who had passed the letter on to the government last week, said the 1990 Nobel peace laureate would issue an 'important and positive' statement on Tuesday.
US President Barack Obama used a meeting Sunday with the leaders of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to urge the junta to free Suu Kyi from house arrest.
In what was the first meeting in 43 years between a US president and leaders of the military junta in Myanmar, Obama reportedly urged Prime Minister General Thein Sein to release Suu Kyi.
Military-ruled Myanmar has earned pariah status among Western democracies for its poor human rights record, detentions of political dissidents including Suu Kyi and the glacial pace of political reform.
The 64-year-old daughter of Myanmar independence hero Aung San has spent 14 of the past 20 years detained in her Yangon family compound.
In August, she was sentenced to 18 more months of house arrest, which would keep her out of the political picture while the government stages an election planned for some time next year.
Her letter also thanked the State Peace and Development Committee, as the regime is officially called, for facilitating her meeting earlier this month with US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and his deputy Scot Marciel during their landmark visit November 2-3.
The US envoys called on Myanmar's ruling junta to allow Suu Kyi more access to her NLD party executives, who have yet to decide whether they intend to contest the planned general election.
The US and other Western democracies have stressed that Suu Kyi and other political prisoners should be freed before the polls, if the junta expects them to be deemed credible.
The NLD party won the 1990 general election by a landslide, but was denied power by the military, which has ruled since 1962.
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