London, June 12 : The Burmese junta has justified its detention of the democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and wanted her to be beaten like a badly behaved child.

The detained head of the National League for Democracy was labelled a threat to national security by government newspapers, whose views are thought to reflect those of the military rulers.

According to the government newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar, which is thought to reflect the views of the ruling generals, the 62-year-old has threatened state security and deserves to be beaten like a "naughty child".

"Myanmar is not the only country that promulgates the laws to prevent those who pose a danger to the state," The Telegraph quoted the newspaper, as saying.

"If necessary to guard the motherland and safeguard the lives and prosperity of the people, every government has to promulgate laws and impose restrictions," it said.

The regime changed the name of the country from Burma to Myanmar in 1989.

The remarks came on the same day the House of Commons votes on a controversial bill to extend the period which terrorism suspects can be held without charge to 42 days.

The article accused Suu Kyi and other detainees of receiving money from foreign governments and ethnic rebel groups.

"Due to the crimes they have committed, they well deserve flogging punishment as in the case of naughty children," the article said.

Suu Kyi, the world's only imprisoned Nobel peace laureate, won 80 per cent of seats in the country's last general election in 1990.

The regime ignored the result and she has spent 13 years since then in detention. Her latest period of house arrest, in her family's sprawling lakeside home in Rangoon, began in 2003.

ANI