He was responding to a question on the Myanmar junta's Monday order to Suu Kyi to serve an 18-month sentence for allowing an uninvited American to stay at her home.

The 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate has been in detention in Myanmar for 14 of the last 20 years, mostly under house arrest. Earlier, Suu Kyi was sentenced to three years in prison by a court in Rangoon, which was reduced by half by the ruling junta.

The ruling has sparked international outrage and calls for release of Suu Kyi and that of Myanmar's more than 2,000 other political prisoners.