Suu Kyi's ongoing house detention meant that it was unlikely that her National League for Democracy opposition party, which won the last polls in 1990 but has been denied power for the past 19 years, would participate in next year's election.

It also dashed hopes that prior to the polls, the regime might open a dialogue with the democracy icon, whom it has detained for 14 of the past 20 years, and consider amending the 2008 constitution, which essentially cements the military's control over any democratically elected government.

Meanwhile, pro-democracy activists have sent a letter to US Senator Jim Webb, chairman of the Subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific Affairs, urging him to not allow the junta to manipulate his planned visit to Myanmar later this week.

'We are concerned that the military regime will manipulate and exploit your visit and propagandise that you endorse the trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the imprisonment of over 2,100 political prisoners, their human rights abuses on the people of Burma and their systematic, widespread and ongoing atrocities against the ethnic minorities,' said the joint statement sent to the US embassy in Yangon by the All Burma Monks Alliance, 88 Generation Students and All Burma Federation of Student Unions.

Webb, a proponent of change in the US foreign policy toward Myanmar, was expected to appeal for a swift release of Yettaw during his visit.