Constitutional talks which Burma's ruling generals describe as a prelude to elections will last another two years, Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said today.

Asked about progress in the Burmese regime's widely-criticised talks, billed as the first step on their "road map" to democracy, Syed Hamid said they were not expected to end for two more years.

"I imagine it will take them another two years on the completion as Myanmar's (Burma) foreign minister informed us it will be when they have a referendum to adopt the constitution," he said, speaking at the end of a day-long retreat of Asean foreign ministers.

"And after that referendum, they will be having an election."

The minister, who visited Rangoon in March as the special envoy of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said that nine chapters of the constitution had been completed with six more left.

The constitutional talks were suspended in January and no date was given for when the 1,000 handpicked delegates would resume their work.

Internationally condemned

The sputtering process began more than a decade ago and has achieved few tangible results.

The latest rounds have been internationally condemned for failing to include the opposition National League for Democracy, which is boycotting the convention to demand the release of its leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which admitted Burma in 1997, have been squirming amid mounting international pressure on it to nudge the junta into delivering long-promised democratic reforms.

Burma agreed in December to allow Syed Hamid to visit the country as an Asean envoy to check on its progress toward democracy, but he left early after failing to meet Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.