Manila: Philippine President Gloria Arroyo said Tuesday she has pressed Myanmar’s top military ruler about detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the need for democratic reform.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s third stint of confinement since 1988 has been extended for a year, according to officials in Yangon and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

Arroyo and Myanmar’s Prime Minister Soe Win met on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Laos this week at the general’s request.

“I informed the Prime Minister that, as an ASEAN neighbor and representative for ASEAN as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, to make the national convention truly successful and meaningful, Daw (honorific) Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy should be represented,” Arroyo said in a statement issued in Manila.

She said she also conveyed to Soe Win UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s message “that another visit of the UN special envoy should be arranged.

“Having welcomed Myanmar to ASEAN, we want to ensure that the ASEAN vision of a vibrant and democratic community will be realized,” Arroyo said.

“I reiterated that we have to answer to our own ASEAN community and to the international community.”

Arroyo said Soe Win told him the ruling junta invited Aung San Suu Kyi to take part in a national convention before elections to ratify a new constitution, “but according to Prime Minister Soe Win, she declined.”

Myanmar officials have reiterated at the Vientiane summit the regime’s commitment to a seven-point “road map” to democracy, which pro-democracy forces dismiss as a sham.

Myanmar joined ASEAN in 1997 and has been a lingering embarrassment for it ever since but the grouping believes in a process of “constructive engagement” with the junta.

The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962. The NLD under Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory in 1990 elections but has never been allowed to rule.