Aung San Suu Kyi calls for peaceful revolution: interview

The 65-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner told the BBC in an interview at the headquarters of her National League for Democracy she was sure democracy would eventually come to Myanmar, although she did not know when.

She added that she would take any opportunity for talks with the ruling military junta, which she wanted to change rather than fall.

"I don't want to see the military falling. I want to see the military rising to dignified heights of professionalism and true patriotism," she said.

"I think it's quite obvious what the people want; the people just want better lives based on security and on freedom."

Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest on Saturday, less than a week after a controversial election that cemented the junta's decades-long grip on power but was widely criticised by democracy activists and Western leaders as a sham.

She said in the interview, published on the BBC website, that she wanted a non-violent end to military rule.

"I think we also have to try to make this thing happen... Velvet revolution sounds a little strange in the context of the military, but a non-violent revolution. Let's put it that way," she said.

Suu Kyi, who has been locked up by Myanmar's regime for 15 of the past 21 years, spent several hours at the NLD headquarters in meetings with regional party members, ending her first day back at work with a trip to a Yangon monastery.

She told the BBC she was not subject to restrictions on her freedom but would take the consequences if the junta decided to lock her up again for what she said or did.

The opposition leader gave her first political speech in seven years on Sunday, appealing to thousands of her jubilant supporters for unity.

She also told reporters she was willing to meet junta chief Than Shwe and talk through their differences.

Suu Kyi swept her party to victory in a 1990 election, but it was never allowed to take power.

Her struggle for her country has come at a high personal cost: her British husband died in 1999, and in the final stages of his battle with cancer the junta refused him a visa to see his wife.

Australia was the latest country to offer support to Suu Kyi on Monday, with Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd saying he had spoken with her and promised that his country would continue to be her "reliable friend" in the future.