Myanmar's military rulers should immediately release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and free all other political prisoners, the United Nations' top human rights body said on Wednesday.
The Commission on Human Rights, in its annual review of the south-east Asian state, also strongly urged the government to end "systematic violations" of human rights and lift all restraints on peaceful political activity.
The calls were contained in a resolution on Myanmar presented by the European Union, the United States and South Korea, amongst others, and was unanimously approved by all 53 members of the body, including China.
Speculation has mounted in Yangon the military could soon free Suu Kyi following its decision on Saturday to let her National League for Democracy (NLD) party reopen its headquarters in the capital.
The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner has spent much of the past 15 years detained or under house arrest.
With Suu Kyi as leader, the NLD easily won the country's last democratic election in 1990 but the military refused to step aside.
A senior NLD official said earlier this week that Suu Kyi, whose latest period of restrictions on movement began last May, could be freed "in a day or two".
But some Yangon-based diplomats doubt that, saying the junta may not want to free her before multi-party constitutional talks due to start on May 17 for fear she may boycott them.
The NLD walked out of the first attempt at such talks in 1996, accusing the junta of manipulating the proceedings.