Burma's military junta has adjourned the latest round of talks aimed at creating a new constitution.
Burmese officials said Thursday soaring temperatures and the approaching monsoon season prompted the decision to close the National Convention until later this year.
The army, which has run the country since 1962, says the convention is key to a seven-stage "roadmap to democracy" laid out in 2003.
The United States, the European Union and the United Nations have condemned the proceedings as fatally flawed without the participation of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy.
Burma is due to assume the rotating chairmanship of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2006.
But some of the bloc's members have voiced concern about the military-ruled nation holding the chair without making visible democratic reforms.
