A high-ranking Myanmar junta official made a rare visit to Aung San Suu Kyi's home on Tuesday, sources said, heightening speculation that she was about to be released after 18 months under house arrest.
Brigadier-General Than Tun, the official liaison officer between the opposition leader and Myanmar's military regime, spent 10 minutes at the University Drive residence, in his first visit for several months.
His brief visit on Tuesday came after United Nations envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail, who made a four-day visit to Myanmar last week, hinted Aung San Suu Kyi could be released shortly.

UN envoy Razali, who made a key four-day visit to Myanmar last week, was commenting on a statement by a minister in Myanmar's military government Sunday of "significant progress" in national reconciliation.

Asked by reporters what he expected, Razali replied: "Well on a scale of zero to ten, what will be your expectation?

"It must be the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, release of political prisoners and further freedom for political activities.
"That is on the menu. The one that everyone expects is the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. Be patient. I think something big will happen."

Aung San Suu Kyi has been under virtual house arrest for much of the past decade and all of the last 18 months.

Razali's comments, made on the sidelines of a conference here, came after Myanmar Labour Minister Tin Win said Sunday that the near future would yield "significant progress" in the military junta's political reconciliation with Aung San Suu Kyi.

But he played down expectations that her release was imminent.

"A certain significant progress will take place within a few days," he said. "I am saying in a few days, I am not saying in a week or in a month."

But Tin Win implicitly discounted the possibility this week would see the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

"I don't think so," he said when asked if the junta would release her in coming days.

"It may not be any statement issued, (but) it will be some sign of progress shown," Tin Win added. "Please be patient and wait a while."

The international community has been anxiously awaiting news out of Yangon since envoy Razali made a key four-day visit to Myanmar ending Friday in which he said important developments could happen "quite quickly."

Razali, a Malaysian diplomat, held a rare meeting Friday with the junta's troika of top generals and said afterwards he felt the reconciliation process was back on track.

The Sunday statements were the first official signs from the government here that it shared in Razali's optimism over his trip.

Deputy foreign minister Khin Maung Win said he was "very happy" with the visit, Razali's seventh since being appointed two years ago as special envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The talks, brokered by Razali since their inception in October 2000, have proceeded at a painfully slow pace, yielding few tangible results to date except for the release of some 250 political prisoners and the re-opening of several offices of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).
Barring her outright release from house arrest, the release of a substantial group of political prisoners would be seen as a significant goodwill gesture by the junta to counter concern that political reconciliation had stalled.

The European Union estimates there are over 1,000 political prisoners languishing in Myanmar's jails, several of them NLD members.

The opposition NLD won a landslide victory in 1990 but was prevented from taking power by the regime.
Bureau Report