This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-asia-15771531

The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi party 'to stand in elections' Asean leaders approve Burma chairmanship bid
(40 minutes later)
By David Loyn BBC News, Rangoon  
Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to announce on Friday that her party will stand in forthcoming by-elections. Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) have agreed that Burma can chair the regional bloc in 2014, amid some signs of reform in the country.
Government electoral regulations opposed by the party were changed recently. The move came at a summit of the 10-member group in Indonesia.
In an interview with the BBC, she also put herself forward as a negotiator to resolve Burma's ethnic conflicts. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told the BBC the decision was unanimous.
Her party was not able to stand in the polls in November 2010 because of conditions imposed to keep it out. He said member states believed that Burma had made significant progress down the path of democracy.
Those conditions have now been lifted, and Aung San Suu Kyi said that she expected most of her party to support a decision to run in by-elections when they meet tomorrow. The announcement came as Burma's pro-democracy party appeared poised to rejoin the country's political process.
She is certain to be one of the candidates her party puts forward for by-elections in about 50 parliamentary seats, vacant after MPs were appointed as ministers. 'Growing'
She said she was confident that remaining political prisoners would soon be released, a confidence that may come from her recent talks with the new president, Thein Sein, whom she described as a good listener. The leadership of the Asean regional grouping rotates on an annual basis, but Burma was not allowed to take the top position last time because of its human rights record.
He is credited with the pace of reforms. Some critics say it is still too early to award the high-profile role to Burma, where between 600 and 1,000 political prisoners are thought to remain behind bars.
She said one sign of the change was that the BBC had been allowed to come to Burma and interview her openly for the first time. But Ko Ko Hlaing, chief political adviser to the Burmese president, said Asean had welcomed Burma as a responsible leader.
Ethnic warfare on the borders has worsened this year, and she offered herself as a negotiator, but said the continuing conflict should not prevent normal democracy operating elsewhere in the country. "Be assured that we are now growing into a democratic society and we will do all our responsibilities and duties as a responsible government, reflecting the desires of the Myanmar (Burmese) people," he said.
This Nobel peace prize winner said she did not think she had suffered, despite her years in forced seclusion, unable to see her husband when he was dying. In Burma, meanwhile, Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party is to meet on Friday to decide whether to rejoin the political process.
It boycotted polls in 2010 because of electoral laws that banned its leaders - former political prisoners - from standing as candidates.
This law and another that required registered parties to "safeguard" the military-written constitution have now been changed.
Ms Suu Kyi told the BBC she expected most of her party to support a decision to run in forthcoming by-elections.