Bangkok - The European Union Monday praised Thailand's "remarkable" statement of concern last week on Myanmar's new trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, which over the weekend drew a rebuke from the ruling junta.

"I found it a remarkable statement at the moment when we all want to see Aung San Suu Kyi relased and hope that she isn't imprisoned again," European Union external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.

The commissioner told Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva Monday morning that the EU welcomed his statement from last week, as current chair of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), in which he expressed the region's concern about the ongoing trial of Suu Kyi which could end in her being sentenced to five years in jail.

Ferrero-Waldner, who was in Bangkok en route to the Asia-European foreign ministers' meeting held in Vietnam Monday and Tuesday, said she expected to meet with the Myanmar foreign minister in Hanoi to discuss Suu Kyi's trial.

"We, most probably, in the form of a troika, will see the foreign minister of Myanmar in Hanoi, so we can pass on very clearly our views of the necessity of freeing all political prisoners, including Aun San Suu Kyi," the EU commissioner told a press conference in Bangkok.

The troika is made up Ferrero-Waldner and the Czech and Swedish foreign ministers who represent the current and the future EU presidency.

Ferrero-Waldner called on ASEAN and Myanmar's other neighbours, China and India, to engage with the junta to bring about change in the country, which has been under military rule since 1962.

Myanmar's government has criticized Thailand's statement as ASEAN chair as going against the principles of the grouping's charter.

"Action against Daw (Mrs) Aung San Suu Kyi is taken in accordance with the normal practice in every state and it is merely the internal affairs of Myanmar," the government said in a statement that ran in state media.

"Therefore, the statement of Thailand issued as the alternate chairman of ASEAN deviates from the principles of the ASEAN Charter and is tantamount to interfering in the internal affairs of Myanmar."

The government statement said ASEAN's statements must be made with the consensus of its members. Thai Foreign Ministry sources, however, claim the chair has the right to make statements for the grouping, which is somewhat notorious for its past ineffectiveness in influencing the poor conduct of some of its member states.

Myanmar became a member of ASEAN in 1997, amid staunch objections from the EU and US. ASEAN now includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Myanmar's military regime ranks among the world's pariah states. It has kept Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years.

Her current detention term is set to expire on Wednesday.

But she faces another three to five years if she is found guilty of allowing US national John William Yettaw, 53, to swim into her compound-cum-prison on Yangon's Inya Lake earlier this month.

Suu Kyi, her two household helpers and Yettaw, have been charged with breaking the terms of her detention, a charge that carries a minimum of three years in jail and a maximum of five.

He trial continued Monday with her defence lawyers presenting their case after the prosecution brought 23 witnesses against the defendants last week.

The Myanmar democracy leader on Friday pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Suu Kyi, 63, is the leader of the National League for Democracy opposition party, which won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has been blocked from power by Myanmar's junta for the past 19 years. Suu Kyi was under house arrest for the 1990 polls, but this did not stop her NLD party from claiming a landslide victory.

The junta plans to hold another general election next year, after a 19-year hiatus in the democratic process.(dpa)