Power Shift Talks OKd in Myanmar : Opposition: Military junta says it is willing to meet with May 27 election winners.

The Myanmar military junta has agreed to hold talks on the transfer of power with the pro-democracy party, which swept last month’s elections, an official spokesman said Friday.

Replying to a question at a press conference, spokesman Kyaw Sann said the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council is now willing to meet with leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party that won more than 80% of the seats in the May 27 elections.

“I cannot, however, say when this meeting will take place,” Kyaw Sann said.

Earlier, NLD acting leader Kyi Maung said his party wants to open a dialogue with the military soon to discuss the transfer of power to a civilian government.

The military called the May election in an effort to improve its image abroad. Despite strict controls on campaigning by opposition parties, the military’s own party won only a handful of seats in the newly created Parliament, which has yet to meet.

Since the election, the military has made little effort to turn over power to civilian rule, despite repeated urging by the victors.

The NLD has moved slowly and carefully to avoid giving the military any excuse to overturn the election.

But it has been under increasing pressure from some of its youthful supporters to call for a quick transfer of power and the release of all political prisoners.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of political activists have been arrested since the military crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988.

Among those under detention are the two top leaders of the NLD, Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo.

Analysts said the military and NLD need to discuss the release of the political prisoners, the drafting of a new constitution, the extent and pace at which the military will hand over power, and efforts to end the country’s 40-year civil war with ethnic minority groups.

At the press conference, the military showed videotapes of a meeting of the Democratic Alliance of Burma (DAB)--a group of minority insurgents and dissident students--held last week at a jungle base near the border with Thailand.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Ye Htut, said the alliance was demanding the creation of a federal union of Myanmar, with eight autonomous and politically equal states for the various ethnic groups.

Ye Htut said the insurgents also demanded that each state in the new union have its own armed forces.

“What the DAB wants to do is to turn insurgent armies . . . into legal armed forces in their respective states,” he said.

He said such an arrangement could lead to bloody internal conflicts.