/asia
NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (AP) -- Military-ruled Myanmar said Monday it would restrict drafting a new constitution to a government-appointed panel, in an apparent rebuff to a push by the United Nations to open the process up.
U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari has made two trips to Myanmar to promote political reconciliation.
Information Minister Brig.-Gen. Kyaw Hsan described as "no longer appropriate" suggestions that any new or outside body review the principles for a new constitution adopted in September by a National Convention, whose delegates were almost all hand-picked by the military.
Kyaw Hsan said if the review was opened up to other parties, "it will be never-ending and the process will get further complicated."
"No assistance or advice from other persons is required," he said, adding that the constitution drafting commission already included legal experts and law graduates of various ethnic groups.
The U.N. has urged the government to make political reforms after large pro-democracy demonstrations in September were violently suppressed, with at least 15 people killed and thousands detained. Myanmar's police chief said Monday that 80 people remain in detention.
A U.N. special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, made two trips to Myanmar to promote political reconciliation, and urged a reconciliation process that was all-inclusive not solely in the hands of the military.
Kyaw Hsan spoke at a news conference to mark the start of work of the 54-member Constitution Drafting Commission, whose work represents the third stage of the ruling junta's seven-step road map to democracy.
The government has long insisted it will make democratic reforms only according to its own plan.
The road map's first stage -- the National Convention -- began in 1993 and was completed only three months ago. Government critics consider the charter drafting process is a sham, designed to keep the military in power.
The adopted guidelines for a new constitution call for the military to maintain a prominent role in politics, and its provisions on eligibility would bar detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from holding elected office.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party won a 1990 general election, but the military refused to allow it to take power. E-mail to a friend 
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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