The European Union made fresh demands on Burma to free democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and urged the military junta to hasten the country's democratisation process.

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner expressed her frustration over Burma's slow progress towards political reform.

"We think that Myanmar (Burma) should really change its policy, should release Aung San Suu Kyi and also the other political prisoners and should of course start this democratisation process ... that has not gone forward," she told reporters.

Ferrero-Waldner said during a visit to Malaysia that the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) could play an effective role in bringing political change to Burma.

"We are speaking to all the Asean members... So for them I think it is easier to put the right pressure on Myanmar. They know their (Myanmar's) mentality," she said.

"We have been working a lot on this issue and we see very little progress," she added.

Defeat in victory

Aung San Suu Kyi is currently serving her third major period under house arrest. Altogether she has spent more than decade locked away, with the most recent house arrest beginning in May 2003.

Her National League for Democracy party won 1990 elections in a landslide victory, but the military which has ruled Burma for some four decades has never allowed them to take office.

The regime has announced a "road map" to democracy but the pace of reforms has been criticised as far too slow.