The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Yangon

Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi met Monday for a third time with the Cabinet minister designated to handle relations with her in the latest effort to nudge along political reconciliation in Myanmar. Suu Kyi met for an hour with Relations Minister Aung Kyi at a government guest house near her lakeside home where she is held under house arrest, said officials and nearby residents, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release official information. Details of the meeting were not made available. Their talk came as Myanmar's military government was defending itself at a meeting in Singapore of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - ASEAN - for its violent crackdown in September on pro-democracy demonstrations. Aung Kyi was appointed on Oct. 8 at the urging of U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari after the U.N. Security Council expressed concern at the junta's actions and urged it to open talks with the country's pro-democracy movement. Aung Kyi is tasked with coordinating contacts with Suu Kyi, who has been in detention for 12 of the last 18 years.