• 
• 

The group has taken credit for facilitating international pledges of aid for Burma after Cyclone Nargis and should use the momentum it gained to nudge forward political change in the military-ruled country, she said.

"Now the question is, given the slight opening that provided, that there is a way to move Burma to a political track … as the road map goes nowhere," Rice said.

"Would it be possible for regional states and neighbours to press the regime to release Aung San Suu Kyi to allow a real opposition to get on the track?" she said.

The political stalemate in Burma had been widely discussed in many international forums as the junta has done little about democracy while rejecting completely the role of a real opposition and the ethnic minorities in its so-called seven-step road map to democracy and national reconciliation.

The junta declined to accept Asean's role in the process of political reform, saying it was comfortable working with the United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who is scheduled to visit the country next month after previously leaving empty-handed.

Gambari sought genuine political dialogue between the junta and Suu Kyi, but it was unclear how that would materialise.