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enior officials from Southeast Asian nations have recommended that their foreign ministers officially appeal to the military-ruled Myanmar to let opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi participate in next year's elections, a Foreign Ministry official said Friday.

ASEAN senior officials wrapped up their meeting in Jakarta on Friday, after hashing over a Myanmarese court's decision to extend Suu Kyi's house detention to 18 months for accepting an American guest. The verdict means the Nobel laureate will remain in detention when the elections take place.

The international community has said the 2010 elections - the first after the 1990 election that was won by Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy - will not be fair and credible if Suu Kyi and other political dissidents currently detained by Myanmar are not allowed to take part.

"We have agreed to recommend that our foreign ministers send a legitimate concern *over Suu Kyi* to Myanmar," Foreign Ministry Secretary-General Imron Cotan told The Jakarta Post via telephone.

The officials did not specifically discuss the verdict against Suu Kyi nor did they plan to issue an appeal letter for her release.

Imron said the bloc had to respect Myanmar's judicial sovereignty and would not interfere with its domestic affairs by asking the junta to release Suu Kyi, who has spent 14 years in prison and house arrest.

"It is up to our foreign ministers to reject or accept our recommendation," he said.

ASEAN countries have come under fire for being lethargic in dealing with the human rights issue in Myanmar, which became a full member of the bloc in 1997 and has since been seen by many as a thorn in ASEAN's side and whose admission was once said to be the decision the bloc regretted the most.

Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah said there was a polarization during the officials' meeting between those that wanted stronger action against Myanmar and those that wished to gather more infor-mation and deeper discussions on the issue.