Myanmar delays Suu Kyi verdict to Aug 11

"The court said they have to consider legal problems, that's why they said they will give the verdict on August 11," her lawyer Nyan Win told AFP after the brief court hearing at Yangon's notorious Insein prison.

"We are not surprised. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was also not surprised," said Nyan Win, who is also the spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD). Daw is a term of respect in the Burmese language.

The Nobel peace laureate faces up to five years in jail if convicted on charges of breaching the terms of her house arrest, after an American man swam across a lake to her heavily secured villa in May.

Critics have accused Myanmar's iron-fisted generals of using the intrusion by US national John Yettaw as an excuse to keep the opposition leader locked up during elections that are due in 2010.

Suu Kyi's international legal counsel, Jared Genser, said the postponement was another attempt by the junta to deflect international criticism.

Riot police surrounded the prison and police trucks patrolled the city following warnings in the junta-controlled state media that protests against a guilty verdict would not be tolerated.