Myanmar's detained Suu Kyi taken to state guesthouse

By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was taken on Monday from her villa to a state guesthouse where she is believed to have met the ruling junta's liaison minister, opposition sources and witnesses said.

Witnesses said a government car with tinted windows left Suu Kyi's tightly guarded lakeside villa in the main city of Yangon and returned about one hour later.

There was no comment from the regime, but the most likely explanation was a meeting with Aung Kyi, a senior member of the ruling military junta appointed as a go-between after September's pro-democracy protests.

"We heard about the meeting between U Aung Kyi and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi this afternoon," said Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.

It would be their third meeting since Aung Kyi's appointment amid world outrage at the military crackdown, in which the junta says 15 people were killed. Western diplomats put the toll much higher.

Some observers said a meeting might have been timed to deflect criticism at this week's annual get-together of the 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Singapore.

Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein was due later on Monday to brief his counterparts on events in the former Burma for the first time since the crackdown.

"I just think it's a face-saving measure for the prime minister at the summit," a veteran Yangon politician said.