Yangon  - Myanmar's military regime has taken initial steps towards opening an embassy in oil-rich Kuwait as a part of its policy of enhancing diplomatic relations with the Middle East, diplomatic sources said Tuesday.

A high-ranking delegation from the Myanmar Foreign Ministry, led by Deputy Minister Maung Myint, recently visited Kuwait for preliminary discussions on the reciprocal opening of embassies in both countries, according to Yangon-based diplomatic sources.

Myanmar established diplomatic ties with Kuwait on December 16, 1998. Kuwait was the 73rd country to establish diplomatic ties with Myanmar, once known as Burma, since the country won independence from Britain in 1948.

Yangon  - Win Tin, 79, who was released from prison three months ago after serving 19 years, has been hospitalized, family members confirmed Saturday.

"He had low blood pressure and difficulty breathing so we sent him to Yangon Medical Centre in Yangon at 7:30 pm Thursday," a relative of Win Tin's told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Before his release from prison on September 23, Win Tin was Myanmar's longest-detained political prisoner.

A central executive member of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, Win Tin was released under a broad government amnesty that included more than 9,000 prisoners, most of them common criminals.

Yangon  - Myanmar junta chief Senior General Than Shwe said the military's political "road map" to democracy was leading towards a "new nation," amid reports that two pro-military parties were being set up to contest the 2010 polls, officials said Saturday.

"A new nation is now very close despite some countries putting pressure on us," Than Shwe said Friday in a speech to the annual mass meeting of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), held in Naypyitaw, the military's new capital situated about 350 kilometres north of Yangon.

The USDA was formed on September 15, 1993, as a popular support base for the military.

Yangon - Prominent business tycoon Maung Weik - known to be close to the head of Myanmar's junta - was sentenced to 15 years in prison on drug trafficking charges in a Yangon court last week, legal sources said Monday.

Weik, 35, who owns Mg Weik and Family Company - one of the country's largest real estate and trading firms - was arrested last May during a charity trip to the Irrawaddy Delta to help victims of cyclone Nargis.

Weik is known to have close ties to Senior General Than Shwe, who heads Myanmar's ruling junta.

Yangon - Myanmar's opposition party Saturday called for the immediate release of thousands of political prisoners to mark Myanmar's 88th National Day, while the ruling junta called for unity in moving towards democracy with "flourishing discipline."

The National League for Democracy, Myanmar's main opposition group, demanded the release all political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi and student activists during celebrations at their headquarters in Yangon.

The party also demanded authorities allow all political parties which were dissolved in 1990 to re-register to contest the upcoming
2010 polls.

Yangon - A popular Myanmar comedian known for his criticism and satire of the country's military junta was sentenced Friday to 45 years in prison in a closed-door court session in Yangon, an opposition spokesman said.