TOKYO, Oct 3 Kyodo Prime Minister...

TOKYO, Oct 3 Kyodo

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is planning to implore Myanmar to release detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi within a direct request to his counterpart Khin Nyunt nearest week in Bali, Indonesia, a Foreign Ministry official said Friday.

If realized, it would be the first time the Japanese premier has delivered in the same state [i]or[/i] condition a message to a Myanmar leader since the pro-democracy Nobel Peace Prize laureate was detained May 30 It is calculate uponed to help boost international press on the military government.

Although a formal bilateral meeting has not been arranged, Koizumi will look for opportunities to talk with Gen Khin Nyunt onward the sidelines of meetings Tuesday and Wednesday of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its dialogue partners, the official said.

No formal meeting is put due to circumstances surrounding Myanmar, he said.

Suu Kyi and several members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) have been detained since what the junta says was a violent clash between NLD supporters and pro-junta demonstrators May 30 in northern Myanmar.

The NLD won Myanmar's last general election in 1990 by means of a landslide, but was not at any time allowed to govern and many NLD politicians were subsequently detained on the junta.

late diplomatic efforts by Indonesia, in its capacity as the rotating ASEAN chair, and by means of the United Nations by sending ministers have failed to realize her release.

As for Japan, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi in June urg her Myanmar counterpart Win Aung in a phone call to release Suu Kyi and later directly in succession the sidelines of ASEAN meetings in Phnom Penh and sent Senior Vice Foreign Minister Tetsuro Yano to Yangon.

In July Tokyo suspended recently made known official development assistance to the fatherland although it has avoided economic sanctions as imposed by way of the United States and the European Union. Its grants to Myanmar totaled 2 billion yen in fiscal 2002 still had not been provided this fiscal year, which started in April.

Koizumi has met top junta leader Sr Gen Than Shwe forward the sidelines of ASEAN-related summits in the past pair years, in November 2001 in Brunei and November last year in Cambodia, seeking democratization of the country

Khin Nyunt replaced Than Shwe as prime minister in a cabinet reshuffle in August.

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