Thailand said today it was asking neighbouring Asian states to support a request to Burma's junta to pardon opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, back under house arrest after a court conviction this week.
A Burmese court sentenced the 64-year-old Nobel peace laureate to three years in detention on Tuesday for violating an internal security law, a sentence then halved by the military government.
The sentence drew condemnation abroad, although criticism from most of Burma's fellow members of the 10-country Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) was muted.
"I already sent a letter to ASEAN members, but we need a consensus," Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said after talks in Malaysia with his ministerial counterpart.
Along with Thailand and Burma ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. Thailand currently chairs ASEAN.
The UN Security Council voiced "serious concern" about the sentence in a statement watered down to meet misgivings from Russia and from China, which has reasonably friendly ties with Burma's military leaders.
The charges against Ms Suu Kyi stemmed from US intruder John Yettaw's two-day uninvited stay at her home in May, which the court ruled was in breach of the terms of her house arrest.
A US senator arrived in Burma today, and a government source said he would meet the leader of the country's junta, which was condemned by the United States this week for the trial.
Jim Webb, chairman of a Senate subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific affairs, arrived in Naypyidaw, the Southeast Asian country's remote new capital, and would meet leader Than Shwe tomorrow, said the source.
Mr Webb is the first member of Congress to travel in an official capacity to Burma in more than a decade, and has also been described as the first senior American official ever to meet Than Shwe.
Reuters