Aung San Suu Kyi meets Burma president Published duration 19 August 2011

image caption Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in late 2010

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has met the country's new leader, President Thein Sein, for the first time.

The meeting came as she paid her first visit to the remote capital, Naypyidaw, to attend an economic forum.

Government officials said she met the former general at the presidential palace, but gave no further details.

The move comes amid signs that the new government is trying to soften its image.

It came to power after widely criticised elections in November 2010 that replaced military rule with an army-backed, nominally civilian government.

The polls were boycotted by Ms Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), because of election laws it said were unfair.

The NLD won the previous elections in 1990 but was never allowed to take power.

Ms Suu Kyi has spent much of the last two decades under house arrest, but was released late last year after the polls had taken place.

The talks between Ms Suu Kyi and the new president, a former general who stepped down to contest the polls as a civilian, were held behind closed doors.

Khun Han Tha, an aide to Ms Suu Kyi, told the BBC the meeting lasted an hour.

"In my view, it was a good meeting. Later she met the director-general of the president's office and the president's wife. It was like meeting old friends. It was warm and cordial meeting," he said.

"She will make a brief visit to the economic forum tomorrow.'

The talks come amid some signs the new government is reaching out to its opponents.

It has removed daily criticism of foreign media from its newspapers and called for talks with armed ethnic groups.

It also allowed Ms Suu Kyi to make her first political trip outside the commercial capital, Rangoon, earlier this month.