Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's military rulers were locked in a war of wills on the fifth day of a roadside standoff yesterday.
Prevented from driving to see supporters, Ms Suu Kyi and three companions refused again to return to Rangoon and so remained stuck in a mini-van on a bridge in west Burma.
Photographs showed the grey mini-van at the entrance to the small wooden bridge on a country road, next to a yellow beach umbrella, white plastic table and two garden chairs - all gifts from the government. The van, sliding side door open but curtains drawn, was close to a thatched hut at what appeared to be a checkpoint.
The still pictures showed no sign of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, her two drivers or senior National League of Democracy member, U Hla Pe, who were stopped at the bridge on Wednesday. But government and NLD sources said the group was in the van and refusing to budge.
Ms Suu Kyi had set out to visit Pathein township, 120 miles (190 km) west of Rangoon but had only reached Anyarsu, 20 miles (32 km) south-west of the capital, when she was stopped.
The latest standoff is designed to focus world attention on an NLD demand that the government convene by August 21st a parliament of members elected at polls in 1990, diplomats say.
The NLD won that election by an overwhelming margin but the result was ignored by the military.
The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, said in Washington on Friday a "moment of truth" was approaching for Burma's military government and it was vital to push for democratic dialogue in the coming days. She backed Suu Kyi's defiance of travel restrictions.
"Aung San Suu Kyi is again today asserting her basic right to move freely in her own country and she is calling for the parliament the Burmese people elected eight years ago to convene by August 21st," Ms Albright said.
Australia also called on Burma to open up and bring in democratic reforms. Its Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, told a radio station on Saturday that Burma was not a country with freedom of expression, freedom of speech, in the way most people in the region would understand it.