Military-run Burma is holding Southeast Asia hostage, hampering progress and bringing the region into disrepute, said Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar.

Syed Hamid visited Burma last month as an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) envoy amid increasing unease over its lack of democratic reforms, but was barred from seeing detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"I think there is a feeling that Myanmar (Burma) is dragging us down in terms of our credibility and image," he told The Star newspaper.

Syed Hamid said the Burma issue was a major distraction at international meetings, where the region was forced to "search for a special formula" to include Burma.

"There is that feeling that we are being held hostage by Myanmar (Burma) on some of the progress," he said.

"We started with a very soft approach but it is getting firmer. Asean is the last hope before people get impatient and stronger views are taken."

Provide proof

Syed Hamid, who will brief Asean foreign ministers at their meeting in Bali this week, said Burma's ruling generals must provide proof of their claims that they are shifting away from four decades of military rule.

"They must convince people, and not only Asean, that their plan is on track, that it is really going to happen... But we are not seeing it as yet."

"At present we have nothing to hold on to. We have been listening to them, we have been told by them, but we cannot verify for ourselves," he said.

While Southeast Asian governments are growing openly impatient over the Burma issue, they say there is no mechanism to eject the region's black sheep from the grouping.

"We do not want any Asean member to decide that it will leave Asean, that is not a solution. We do no want Myanmar isolating itself," Syed Hamid said.

The military regime has spelled out a "road map" for democracy, including talks on a new constitution, but Aung San Suu Kyi's party has boycotted the process, which critics have called a sham.

The military crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988 and two years later rejected the result of national elections won by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.