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"Maybe they'll realize he won't make seven years, and they'll send him home."

A spokesman for the US embassy in Rangoon said the issue had "not been officially discussed."

The meeting between Webb and the regime leaders is seen by some observers as an effort by the junta to exploit the different reactions by international and regional governments to Suu Kyi's conviction and her return to house arrest.

The UN Security Council released a press statement heavily influenced by Burma's biggest ally, China, which inserted indirect praise for Than Shwe's act of "mercy" by halving Suu Kyi's sentence and allowing her to return home.

A tougher US draft would have condemned Suu Kyi’s conviction but ran into opposition not only from China but also from Russia, Vietnam and Libya.

Explaining why the Security Council statement had been watered down, Britain’s UN Ambassador John Sawers, the council chair this month, said: “I think we all know that different members of the Security Council have different views on the situation there and that the strong views in various Western capitals are not entirely shared in countries elsewhere."

Applauding the regime's policy line, the regime’s official mouthpiece The New Light of Myanmar said on Friday that Than Shwe's intervention in the Suu Kyi verdict was "designed to ensure a win-win situation." It gave the opposition "good opportunities to accept the situation and keep on carrying out political activities," the newspaper said.

Naypyidaw had made a giant step towards change, the newspaper said—adding: "We should show loving kindness in return when someone shows loving-kindness for us. Only then will there be a change."