Aung San Suu Kyi (file image)
Ms Suu Kyi is expected to be still in detention during any elections
Burma's military rulers have issued a law which will bar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from participating in planned elections.
The new law prohibits anyone with a a criminal conviction from taking part.
Ms Suu Kyi was already excluded from political office by a clause in the constitution which bars people with foreign spouses.
She has been detained for most of the past 20 years on various charges, after winning the last elections in 1988.
The Political Parties Registration Law was published in official newspapers, in a series of daily announcements of laws intended to guide the elections. No date has yet been set for polls which the military intends to hold.
Credence doubt
The election law bars anyone convicted in a court of law, members of religious orders and civil servants from joining political parties.
It says that political parties have 60 days from Monday, when the law was promulgated, to register with an Election Committee whose members are to be appointed by the junta.
The United States has reiterated its scepticism that any poll in which opposition figures are barred will have any credibility.
"We urge the authorities to begin a genuine political dialogue with all stakeholders as a first step towards credible elections," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.
"We are concerned by the Burmese authorities' unilateral decision to begin releasing the election laws without first engaging in substantive dialogue with the democratic opposition or ethnic minority leaders," he said.
"We remain sceptical that the elections planned for this year will be credible," he added.
Regional and international human rights organisations have documented continued harassment, persecution and detention of government critics.
Ms Suu Kyi was convicted last August of violating the terms of her house arrest by briefly sheltering an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside residence.
She was sentenced to a new term of house arrest that is to end this November; her latest appeal against that sentence was rejected by the Supreme Court last month.
The regime enacted five election-related laws on Monday, two of which have now been made public. Three more are to be unveiled in coming days.
Critics say the elections, the first to be held in Burma for 20 years, will be a sham designed to entrench the military's grip on power.
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