YANGON, Nov 9: Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Friday that she is ‘very optimistic’ about the UN-promoted effort to start a dialogue between the military government and pro-democracy forces, but appeared reconciled to remaining under house arrest.

She made the observations in a meeting with top executives of her National League for Democracy, who were allowed contact with her for the first time in more than three years.

She looked “fit, well and energetic like before. She is full of ideas,” said party spokesman Nyan Win, who attended the hour-long meeting at a government guest house with three top party members. The leader was taken to the guest house from her home nearby where she is kept under house arrest.

Their meeting, from which public and press were kept well away, was permitted by the government after United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari on Thursday completed a six-day visit to Myanmar to promote a dialogue between the ruling junta and Suu Kyi.

Nyan Win said the 1991 Nobel peace laureate believed the military authorities now had the will to achieve national reconciliation.He said she had told her party leaders that the government’s crackdown on September’s mass pro-democracy demonstrations was “devastating for the NLD, the government and the people”.

“She said a healing process such as the release of political prisoners is essential,” according the spokesman.

Appearing to concede that she would remain detained for the immediate future, she told her colleagues that she would ask for two liaison officers of her choice to help her communicate with them. She said she would also ask the junta’s ‘minister for relations’ Aung Kyi to make arrangements so that she could see the other party leaders whenever necessary.

Suu Kyi has been in detention for 12 of the past 18 years, and continuously since May 2003.

The UN envoy met Suu Kyi for an hour and released a statement on her behalf after leaving the country. It was apparently her first public message since her latest detention began in 2003.

“In the interest of the nation, I stand ready to cooperate with the government in order to make this process of dialogue a success,” she said in the statement, which Mr Gambari read on Thursday evening in Singapore.

Her message also slightly prodded the junta to move more quickly in dealing with her, saying she hoped that preliminary consultations with Aung Kyi could be concluded soon “so that a meaningful and time-bound dialogue with the State Peace and Development Council leadership can start as early as possible.”—AP