The United Nations' special envoy to Burma hopes the country's newly installed prime minister is taking steps towards releasing pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, news reports said today.

Razali Ismail said he was keen to discuss Prime Minister Khin Nyunt's seven-point plan towards "free and fair" elections and hoped the proposal included a section on releasing Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained since May.

"We have taken note of General Khin Nyunt's proposal and we hope to discuss the matter further," the former Malaysian diplomat was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper here.

"We hope that one of the points in the plan will be on efforts to secure Suu Kyi's release," he was quoted as saying by the Malay-language Utusan Malaysia .

However, Razali said the date of his next visit to Burma had yet to be confirmed.

He added that the UN had no evidence that the Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was on hunger strike, as alleged by the United States.

Seven-point plan

Khin Nyunt recently announced a seven-point plan to reconvene a suspended national convention to draft a new constitution and then hold "free and fair" elections, but gave no timetable for the roadmap.

Analysts have dismissed the move as merely a rehash of the junta's often-stated intentions to pursue a gradual transition to "disciplined democracy."

World leaders have been up in arms since Rangoon's military rulers detained Aung San Suu Kyi after her supporters were mobbed by a pro-junta gang, in a clash in which dozens were feared killed.

Since then her National League for Democracy (NLD) party has faced a nationwide crackdown that has persisted despite the introduction of tough new sanctions by the United States, the European Union and Canada.

Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990 that has never been recognised by the government.

The NLD has consistently refused to back any new elections and has vowed not to return to the national convention which it walked out on in 1995. - AFP