Preparations are under way for the expected release of Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, officials said yesterday, after the army's proxies claimed a landslide election win.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has spent most of the past two decades locked up, is due to be freed on Saturday, just days after a widely criticised election that her party boycotted.

'"We haven't got any instruction from superiors for her release yet. But we are prepar-ing security plans for November 13," a government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Suu Kyi, will not accept conditions on her freedom if the military government releases her this week when her latest period of detention is due to end, her lawyer said on Wednesday.

Suu Kyi voiced opposition to Myanmar's first election in 20 years, held last Sunday and easily won, as expected, by a party set up by the military. She has called on her loyalists to expose electoral fraud, her lawyer, NyanWin, said.

Her lawyer said Wednesday she would hold a news conference at her party's headquarters if freed, suggesting she is likely to resist any attempt by the authorities to restrict her political activities.

US President Barack Obama dismissed the election as stolen while China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs lauded it as "peaceful and successful", illustrating strengthening ties between energy-hungry China and its resource-rich neighbour.

Myanmar's other neighbours and partners in the Association of South East Asian (Asean) had urged it to make theelection "fairandinclusive" and to release Suu Kyi and more than 2,000 other political prisoners before the vote.

While that did not happen, there is speculation she might be freed from house arrest on Saturday, when a sentence imposed last year for the violation of a security law is due to end.

"Aung San Suu Kyi must be released on or before November 13 because it is the day when the house arrest on her expires," lawyer Nyan Win, who is also a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), told Reuters.

"The release must also be unconditional because she will not accept a limited release. As we all know, she never accepted limited freedom in the past," he said.

When released from a six-year stint of house arrest in 1995, Suu Kyi was not allowed to leave the city ofYangon. That led to confrontations as she tried to travel to meet supporters.

Authorities have not said if Suu Kyi, daughter of the hero of Myanmar's campaign for independence from Britain, will be freed or not.

The military is guaranteed a quarter of all seats in the newly elected assemblies and the winning party is packed with former military men who gave up their uniforms to stand.

Suu Kyi's NLD was officially disbanded for not taking part in the polls but she had urged her members to watch how the voting went, NyanWin said.

"She had told NLD leaders to watch over Sunday's elections and expose malpractice and fraud," he said. "Following her instructions, we are taking care of it now.”

While highly unlikely she would call for street protests, her freedom could embolden those who might throng to see her.

Jim Webb, chairman of a US Senate subcommittee on East Asia and one of the few Westerners praised by the Myanmar generals, said last month Washington was split on whether to engage with the regime and warned that with continued isolation, Myanmar would effectively become "a provinceofChina".

Yet some fear Myanmar's military regime, headed by junta chief Senior General Than Shwe, may still find an excuse to extend Suu Kyi's sentence.

Another official, who also did not want to be named, said: "We don't have the order yet. It will be at the last minute."

Suu Kyi's detention was extended by 18 months in August last year over a bizarre incident in which an American swam uninvited to her lakeside home, where she is under house arrest, keeping her off the scene for a rare election.

When the softly-spoken but indomitable opposition leader was last released in 2002 she drew huge crowds wherever she went — a reminder that years of detention had not dimmed her immense popularity.

Her likely release is seen by observers as an effort by the regime to deflect criticism of the election, held on Sunday.

Some former NLD members left to create the National Democratic Force (NDF), which was weighing its next move after the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) said it had won 80 percent of the seats.

The largest opposition party running, me NDF appeared to have secured only about 10 percent of the more than 160 seats it contested and accused the USDP of cheating through its collection of advance votes.

"I'm very sorry because these acts could further harm the dignity of our country," party chairman Than Nyein said Tuesday. "Our country has lacked dignity in the world so we wanted to restore our pride with a fair election."

The Democratic Party, the second largest pro-democracy group, appeared not to have won a single seat in the national legislature, but chairman Thu Wai said they "cannot do anything".

"We are planning to discuss with other parties after we collect the data. We will try to work not only with the NDF but also with other parties," he said.

One quarter of the seats in parliament are already reserved for the military, which together with its political proxy looks set to have a comfortable majority for passing laws and electing the president.

A new constitution requires Eiarliament to convene only at east once ayear.

Thai officials said Wednesday that 20,000 refugees had returned to Myanmar after crossing the border into Thailand following the outbreak of fighting between ethnic rebels and government forces a day after the poll.