A top Myanmar general Monday insisted a new round of constitutional talks would move the country toward "disciplined democracy", despite a chorus of international demands to step up reforms.
"We are in the process of transition to a disciplined democratic nation," Lieutenant General Thein Sein, the head of the National Convention, said in an opening address to some 1,000 delegates chosen by the ruling junta.
"This is the first step in the transition to democracy, and it is the most crucial step. Genuine and disciplined democracy - there is no other way, this is the way."
Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), is boycotting the talks to demand her release from house arrest, which was extended by six months on November 27.
The absence of the NLD at the latest round of constitutional talks in this isolated military compound north of Yangon has prompted the United States, the United Nations and the European Union to dismiss the proceedings as a sham.
The NLD, which won a landslide victory in 1990 elections but was never allowed to take office, has boycotted all three sessions of the convention held over the last two years.
NLD spokesman U Lwin declined to comment on the latest round of talks.
The National Convention aims to provide Myanmar with a new constitution, but even officials and delegates here doubt that a new basic law will bring any significant change to the isolated Asian country.