YANGON, Oct 23: Myanmar's military junta is likely to restart talks on a new constitution in January, a senior general said on Saturday, after last week's purge of Prime Minister Khin Nyunt cast doubts over the process.

Lieutenant-General Thein Sein, the secretive regime's fifth most powerful leader, said Yangon would press ahead with the seven-step "roadmap to democracy" unveiled by the ousted prime minister last year.

The junta says the National Convention, the assembly drafting the constitution, is the first step on the roadmap which is supposed to chart a return to civilian rule after more than 40 years of army diktat.

The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, is boycotting the convention. The NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990, but the army ignored the result.-Reuters