Nobel Peace Prize winners and world leaders have appealed to Burma's military junta to free the 1991 laureate, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest and to shift to democracy.
Former winners South African anti-apartheid advocate Desmond Tutu and East Timorese independence campaigner Jose Ramos Horta led the call from Oslo where about 30 laureates met on the 100th anniversary of the first prize.
About 1,000 people cheered in the rain outside Norway's parliament and thousands of others joined the call in events worldwide from Washington DC to Bangkok, linked together via satellite with a giant five-metre (16ft) long screen.
Between 25 and 30 laureates signed the appeal, including the Dalai Lama, former Polish president Lech Walesa and Guatemalan Indian rights campaigner Rigoberta Menchu. They also called for a meeting with Rangoon.
Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel for her peaceful pursuit of human rights and democracy in Burma, expressed optimism her non-violent fight for democracy would prevail.
We believe that humanity is capable of progress, said Suu Kyi in a pre-recorded video organisers said was smuggled out of Burma.
It was beamed on the outdoor screen to cheers from laureates and the crowd.
She said the problems of the southeast Asian country, one of the world's least developed, stemmed from bad governance and called on world leaders to join the struggle for democracy.
Among a series of pledges and words of support, US President George W. Bush commended her determination and resolve in a letter read out in Oslo.
Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for most of the past 11 years in Burma, formerly Burma, which has been ruled by the military since 1962. Even so, the award is considered a partial success as it put the spotlight on the military regime.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won Burma's last democratic election in 1990 by a landslide, but the junta refused to step down.
The appeal also called for the release of 21 detained elected members of the Burma parliament and 1,500 other political prisoners being held by the ruling junta.
Suu Kyi is the daughter of Burma's independence hero General Aung San, who was assassinated in 1947 when the country was on the threshold of independence from Britain.