Junta names negotiator for Suu Kyi talks

Myanmar's military junta has appointed a deputy minister to negotiate with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on the regime's offer of direct talks, state television said yesterday.

Aung Kyi, a major general who became Deputy Labour Minister last year, would "make contact and deal with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in the future," MRTV said, without giving further details.

After the largest anti-junta protests in nearly 20 years, Senior General Than Shwe, whose loathing for Ms Suu Kyi is well known, offered direct talks if she abandoned "confrontation" and support for sanctions and "utter devastation".

There was no reaction from Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy to Aung Kyi's appointment. But NLD spokesman Nyan Win has said Than Shwe's offer could lead to talks about talks.

There has been no word from Suu Kyi, 62, who has spent 12 of the past 18 years in detention and is confined to her house in Yangon without a telephone and requiring official permission, granted rarely, to receive visitors.