Suu Kyi holds 'warm' talks with Myanmar president on power shift

Myanmar's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi held "warm and open" talks with the president on the transfer of power from the military establishment, a minister said Wednesday, nearly a month after her opposition party cleaned up at the polls.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won nearly 80 percent of contested seats in a November 8 election which appears poised to end the military's decades-long domination of the country.

Immediately after her party's win Suu Kyi, who is blocked from the presidency by the army-written constitution, appealed for "national reconciliation" talks with President Thein Sein and the powerful army chief.

Both men have congratulated her on the NLD's win and vowed to ensure a smooth handover of power to the opposition -- an unprecedented moment in the country's history.

But opposition supporters remain wary of a military establishment that has duped them before and crushed political opponents.

The new NLD lawmakers are not due to take their parliamentary seats until at least February, making for a nervous few months of transition.

The NLD won a similar scale landslide in 1990 polls, only to see the military annul the result and dig in for another two decades. 

Nearly an hour of talks were held on Wednesday morning between Suu Kyi -- a Nobel Peace Prize winner -- and Thein Sein, a former top junta general who has shed his uniform to steer reforms over recent years.

"They discussed the peaceful transfer to the next government. The discussion was warm and open," Information Minister Ye Htut who was at the meeting told reporters.

"We have no tradition of the peaceful (power) transfer to a new elected government since we gained independence in 1948. We will establish this tradition without fail," he added.

The NLD confirmed the meeting in a Facebook page but gave no immediate details.