First Lady Laura Bush has announced she will host a roundtable discussion on Burma at the United Nations on Tuesday.
She hopes to raise awareness about what the White House calls "the humanitarian crisis" in Burma and to gain support for a U.S.-sponsored U.N. resolution on Burma's political and human rights violations.
The roundtable is expected to include repeated calls for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy leader in Burma who has been under house arrest or imprisoned by Burma's military junta for much of the past 20 years.
Mrs. Bush has called Aung San Suu Kyi "a role model for women around the world."
On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department said it has formally requested the U.N. Security Council add Burma to its agenda.
