Rumors are swirling in Rangoon about a possible meeting between Aung San Suu Kyi and Snr-Gen Than Shwe, one day after the junta’s liaison officer met with the pro-democracy leader for the second time within a week.

Suu Kyi met twice this week with Aung Kyi, a retired major general who is the regime’s labor minister.

In this undated photo, Aung San Suu Kyi meets Than Shwe at the army guest house in Rangoon.

The meetings followed a letter Suu Kyi sent late last month to Snr-Gen Than Shwe, offering to cooperate with the Burmese regime in an effort to lift US sanctions and requesting to meet with Western diplomats to discuss the sanctions.

Burma's official media confirmed that the two meetings were arranged because of Suu Kyi’s letter to Than Shwe. The letter appeared to be a confidence-building gesture to the junta, observers suggested.

Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, has welcomed the meetings as "constructive" and suggested they might lead to higher level talks.

"We strongly believe that the only way to solve the political and economic crisis in Burma is to start the dialogue between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Snr-Gen Than Shwe," Khin Maung Swe, an NLD spokesperson, told The Irrawaddy.

According to sources in Rangoon, many people, including government officials, civil servants and businessmen, are interested in the current political developments.

Some analysts maintain, however, that the likelihood of a top level meeting is "nil."

A prominent politician in Rangoon, Aye Thar Aung, who is secretary of both the Arakan League for Democracy and the Committee Representing People’s Parliament, said that the recent meetings were a positive sign that regime is willing to talk, but the nature of the discussions are unknown.

"The meetings could just be a follow-up to her letter," he said.  

Suu Kyi's meeting with Aung Kyi on Wednesday was their seventh since he was appointed "Relations Minister" in October 2007, after the junta came under intense international condemnation for its brutal crackdown on mass demonstrations.

Suu Kyi met Than Shwe, accompanied by former spy chief Gen Khin Nyunt, in 1994 and 2002, while she was under house arrest.