BANGKOK — Myanmar’s president said Thursday that he backed changing the country’s Constitution to allow “any citizen” to become president, apparently a reference to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize-winning democracy advocate whose political ambitions have been thwarted for decades by the military.

In his most explicit remarks on the issue to date, President Thein Sein said it would be “healthy” to amend the Constitution “from time to time to address the national, economic and social needs of our society.” He added that he “would not want restrictions being imposed on the right of any citizen to become the leader of the country.”

The Constitution, which was written by a military junta that is now defunct, specifically bars candidates for Myanmar’s presidency and vice presidency from having close family members who “owe allegiance to a foreign power” — a provision many analysts say was written to block the popular Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi from power. Her two sons with her British husband were born in Britain and live outside Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Mr. Thein Sein is a former general and his comments, made in a speech on national television and reprinted in the Burmese state news media on Thursday, carry weight across Burmese society. But any constitutional changes need the support of more than 75 percent of the members of Parliament, and Mr. Thein Sein’s leverage over the legislature is seen as limited.