The trial against Aung San Suu Kyi has garnered international attention and generated diplomatic pressures against her conviction.

For some observers the delay is part of an attempt by the ruling military junta to avoid attention by foreign media and political leaders.

This morning the court should have read out her sentence; instead it was surrounded by the military. All the roads leading to Insein Prison were closed off by soldiers and blocked by barbed-wire barricades.

The junta warned Suu Kyi’s supporters not to demonstrate.

If convicted Ms Suu Kyi could face up to five years in jail. She is accused of allowing American well-wisher John Yettaw to stay in her lakeside home in Rangoon after he swam there, evading her guards.

He said he swam to her home to warn her that he had a vision that she would be assassinated.

Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, suspects that she was set up to prevent her from running in next year’s elections.

The trial had initially been expected to last a few days, but has now dragged on for more than two months. Defence lawyers gave their final statements on Tuesday, in response to the prosecution's closing arguments the day before.

Ms Suu Kyi, 64, has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years, mostly under house arrest.

For most Burmese she remains the symbol of democracy and the possible victory over the military dictatorship.