ASEAN chair Malaysia demands Myanmar free Suu Kyi

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, May 26 (Reuters) Malaysia, chair of Southeast Asia's regional grouping, called on Myanmar to immediately release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi today, a day before her current detention order was due to lapse.

Suu Kyi has spent 10 of the past 16 years behind bars or under house arrest, but Myanmar's military rulers allowed a top UN official to meet her last weekend, raising speculation that she could be released on Saturday.

''I don't think it's beneficial for Myanmar to keep her indefinitely,'' said Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, who visited Myanmar in March as an envoy of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

''One of the best ways, rather than to renew the detention, is to release her,'' he told reporters.

''The government is very strong and very stable. They are able to maintain security. Why should they be worried?'' ''The international community will welcome it but it's their right. We hope they will take the views and feelings of others into account.'' Myanmar has been a member of ASEAN since 1997 and is a growing source of embarrassment to the grouping, which is struggling to maintain its influence in world affairs.

With rising powers China and India threatening to overshadow it, ASEAN feels Myanmar's pariah status in the West and its aversion to democratic reform has become a costly distraction.

Suu Kyi's detention is a symbol to the junta's critics who say its seven-step plan, unveiled in 2003, to end army rule is going nowhere. Her National League for Democracy won elections in 1990 but was denied power by the military, in power since 1962.

Senior UN official Ibrahim Gambari met Suu Kyi last Saturday. It was her first contact with an outsider in more than two years.

Gambari said after the meeting that it did not mean Suu Kyi's release was imminent, but the encounter sparked talk that the generals might be prepared to free her tomorrow, when her current six-month detention order lapses.

REUTERS SRS KN1327