[JURIST] Party allies of opposition leader and democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi [BBC profile] Tuesday renewed calls for unconditional talks [JURIST report] between Suu Kyi and junta leader Senior General Than Shwe [BBC profile]. Members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) urged the military government to drop its condition that Suu Kyi abandon support for international sanctions [JURIST report] against the military regime, emphasizing that the meeting was crucial to resolving Myanmar's problems. The NLD pushed for unconditional talks in the "spirit of give and take."

On Monday, the junta leadership said that Suu Kyi would likely not be released from house arrest [JURIST report] until a new constitution for the country is approved. She has spent 11 of the past 17 years in prison or under house arrest for alleged violations of an anti-subversion law [text]. The country has been governed without a constitution since the military regime took power in 1988 and talks on a new national charter [JURIST report] have been underway for 14 years. Suu Kyi has not had contact with the NLD since 2004. AP has more.