Burma's military government has adjourned a convention that was working on a new constitution for the country. Burmese officials said Thursday soaring temperatures and the approaching monsoon season prompted the decision to suspend the talks. The convention is not expected to resume until at least November.
The United States, the European Union and the United Nations have condemned the convention as fatally flawed without the participation of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy.
Burma is scheduled to take over the rotating chairmanship of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2006. The adjournment of the constitutional convention comes as ASEAN governments face a growing disagreement over how to deal with the military government that has run Burma since 1962.
Information for this report is provided by AFP and Reuters.
