Burma names general acting premier
Prime Minister Soe Win (L) and Lt-Gen Thein Sein (R)
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Rangoon - Military-run Burma on Friday named a senior general acting premier as the incumbent prime minister, Soe Win, battles cancer.
Lieutenant General Thein Sein, who ranks fifth in the military, was referred to as acting prime minister in the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
Authorities have denied Soe Win is ill, but he is believed to be suffering from leukemia.
Soe Win, a lieutenant general in his late 50s, rose to the position after allegedly plotting an attack on the motorcade of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in May 2003.
After the attack, Aung San Suu Kyi was imprisoned and then placed under house arrest, where she remains.
The latest period of her detention is set to expire on May 27, when the ruling junta is likely to renew it again.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 61, is the world's only detained Nobel peace laureate.
She has spent most of the last 17 years under house arrest at her lakeside Yangon home, with little contact with the outside world apart from a live-in maid and visits by her doctor.
Analysts have said that even if Soe Win became too ill to work or was replaced, it would have little effect on the government because all real power lies with Senior General Than Shwe and the military junta.
Soe Win is currently in Singapore for medical treatment.
Agence France Presse
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