MS San Suu Kyi and her League for Democracy (NLD) yesterday ended a congress demanding Burma's military release all political prisoners.
The opposition leader also used the end of the three day meeting, marred by the detention of 262 NLD activists, to stake the party's claim as the true representative of the Burmese people.
Ms Suu Kyi said the congress had adopted a wide range of policies on subjects ranging from the economy to a new constitution. But it also issued a resolution demanding the release of all political prisoners, including those people detained ahead of the congress.
At least 233 elected NLD representatives were among those detained in a military sweep in the days leading up to the start of the meetings, originally aimed at bringing them together to mark the sixth anniversary of the elections.
Party officials said that one NLD youth member has already been released, but that they believed that some 10 other activists had been charged under Burma's draconian security laws.
The opposition said however that the main message coming out of the three day congress was an assertion that NLD candidates who won seats in the 1990 elections were the legitimate representatives of the people.
"Parliament should be supreme and ... must be made up only of the elected representatives of the people," she said. "We believe in an independent judiciary and also believe that the nation should be based on the agreement of all the people of the union."
The military junta oversaw the 1990 polls, overwhelmingly won by the NLD, but ignored the results and now says that the terms of those elected has already expired.
"We regard the terms of the elected representatives as valid until such time that parliament has met and decided what their term of office is going to be," Ms Suu Kyi said.
She added that the NLD was always prepared for dialogue with the military as long as contacts came without preconditions, and said the role of the armed forces in political life should be determined by the people.
Ms Sun Kyi said that another key resolution adopted at the congress was for the formulation of an economic policy based on free market principles which would protect investors and businesses.
"We want to make sure there are equal opportunities under the law," she said. "If there is to be a real market economy it has to be open to everybody, not just to some who are privileged."
The NLD congress raised the stakes in a political stand off with the junta, which has been playing out slowly since Ms Suu Kyi's unexpected release from six years of house arrest last July.
Some 15,000 people flocked to Ms Sun Kyi's house over the weekend to hear her speak and support the NLD's determination to push on with the meeting.