Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party dismissed a Burmese junta offer of talks as unreal today.
General Than Shwe, who sent in soldiers to crush peaceful monk-led demonstrations, was asking Ms Suu Kyi to abandon the campaign for democracy which has kept her in detention for 12 of the last 18 years, a spokesman said.
They are asking her to confess to offences that she has not committed," said a spokesman for the Nobel peace laureate's National League for Democracy (NLD), whose landslide election victory in 1990 was ignored by the generals.
Gen Shwe, head of the latest junta in 45 unbroken years of military rule of Burma, set out his conditions for direct talks at a meeting with special UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari on Tuesday, state-run television said.
Ms Suu Kyi must abandon her "confrontation" with the government, give up "obstructive measures" and backing for sanctions as well support of "utter devastation".
The NLD spokesman demanded Ms Suu Kyi be allowed to respond in public, but the only time Ms Suu Kyi has been seen in public since she was last detained in May 2003 was during one monk-led demonstration last week when protesters were allowed through the barricades sealing off her street.
She appeared for 15 minutes at the gate of the home to which she is confined without a telephone and requiring official permission to receive visitors. The barricades were reinforced afterwards and not opened again.
The United States called for the military to talk to Ms Suu Kyi without conditions and said the senior US diplomat in Burma would visit the new capital, Naypyidaw, to urge the junta to begin a "meaningful dialogue" with opposition groups.
China has said the suppression of pro-democracy protests did not require international action.