Yangon  - The final hearings began at a special court in Yangon's Insein Prison Monday in the controversial trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, her two aides and a US national who swam into her lakeside compound three months ago.

Defence and prosecution lawyers were scheduled Monday to present their final arguments in the case against Suu Kyi's two housekeepers - Khin Win and Win Ma Ma - and American national John William Yettaw, a 53-year-old Mormon who swam into Suu Kyi's house-cum-prison compound on May 3 and stayed there until the night of May 5.

Suu Kyi, who has been confined for 13 of the past 19 years, faces an additional five years for breaching the terms of her house arrest after the May intrusion by Yettaw.

Her housemaids face similar charges for facilitating Yettaw's uninvited visit, and Yettaw himself has been charged with violating the terms of his visa and swimming illegally in Inya Lake.

Lawyers presented their final arguments in Suu Kyi's case on Friday. It is not yet known when the court will issue its verdicts in the four cases.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been accused of breaking the terms of her detention by allowing Yettaw to enter her compound without informing the authorities.

On Friday, the special court in Insein Prison heard her chief lawyer U Kyi Win present the 30-page defence case that she was an innocent party to an intrusion that should have been prevented by her military guards.

Suu Kyi's legal team has asked why the authorities did not respond to Suu Kyi's earlier complaint when Yettaw first broke into her compound to try to contact her in November.

Critics of the regime consider Yettaw's intrusions an unintended gift to the junta, giving it an excuse to detain Suu Kyi after her previous six-year detention expired on May 27.

The military government is believed to want her confined until at least after elections planned for 2010.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has been blocked from power by Myanmar's junta for the past 19 years.

The new trial of Suu Kyi has sparked a chorus of protests from world leaders and even strongly-worded statements from Myanmar's regional allies in the Association of South-East Asian Nations.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton last week offered Myanmar improved relations if it released Suu Kyi, but there was no indication the junta would agree.

The New Light of Myanmar, a state-run newspaper, said Friday in an editorial that "demanding the release of Suu Kyi means showing reckless disregard for the law."