Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi made an anti-Muslim comment about a BBC presenter after being challenged on violence suffered by Burma’s Muslim minority.

The Burmese politician, who was once under house arrest for 15 years in her native Burma, made an off-air comment about BBC Today presenter Mishal Husain after losing her temper during an interview where Husain asked her to condemn anti-Islamic sentiment.

Following the interview, Suu Kyi was heard to mutter: "No one told me I was going to be interviewed by a Muslim."

The comments were revealed in a new book, The Lady And The Generals: Aung San Suu Kyi And Burma’s Struggle For Freedom, by Peter Popham.

The book reveals that the 70-year-old president of Myanmar’s National League for Democracy refused to condemn anti-Islamic sentiment and massacres of Muslims in Myanmar when she was repeatedly asked to do so by Husain, the first Muslim presenter of Radio 4’s Today programme, during the interview.

Her response was: "I think there are many, many Buddhists who have also left the country for various reasons.

"This is a result of our sufferings under a dictatorial regime."

Last year Suu Kyi was criticised for not speaking out in defence of a persecuted Muslim minority, the Rohingya of Rakhine state where many are confined to squalid internment camps.