Burma's military government says three jailed leaders of the ethnic Mon group are in good health.
The government issued a statement after an exiled Mon organization urged the United Nations to put pressure on Rangoon to free the three on medical grounds.
Mon National Democratic Front vice chairman Nai Ngwe Thein, the organization's secretary, Min Soe Lin, and joint secretary Min Kyi Win are reported to have been in jail since 1998. His friends say Min Soe Lin is in critical condition with tuberculosis. And the other two are said to be ill as well.
Burma has frequently been urged to release its political prisoners, which the London-based group, Amnesty International, says number between 12,00 and 13,00.