Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was today taken to a state guesthouse where she has previously met foreign diplomat, sources said.
There are no details yet on the purpose of the trip, although the most likely explanation was to meet Aung Kyi, a senior member of the ruling military junta appointed as a go-between after last month's crushed pro-democracy protests.
A security source said the 62-year-old Nobel laureate had returned to her lakeside villa, where she has spent most of the 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest, an hour later.
Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, which won a 1990 election by a landslide only to be denied power by the military, said it did not know what happened at the guest house.
The barbed wire barricades that have sealed off the road outside her home since protests started in August against fuel price rises and decades of military rule remained in place, scuppering hopes Ms Suu Kyi might be about to be released.
Mr Aung Kyi, a former general, was appointed two weeks ago after UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari flew in at the height of a crackdown on the biggest protests in two decades. Mr Gambari brought a message from the UN Security Council telling the generals to talk to Ms Suu Kyi about reform.
Burma's exiled prime minister today continues his Irish visit with a scheduled meeting with Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern.
Dr Sein Win, who is a cousin of opposition leader Ms Suu Kyi, is on an EU lobbying tour, which includes visits to Britain and France. Dr Win was invited by lobby group Burma Action Ireland.