We are waiting for the military to make an offer

U Lwin, National League for Democracy

Thailand's Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyut made the claim following a visit to Thailand by Burma's military intelligence chief, Lt General Khin Nyunt.

"The talks are going well," he told journalists. "There may be good news soon."

But the NLD spokesman, U Lwin, told the BBC "there was in fact no dialogue process going on at present."

He added: "We are waiting for the military to make an offer."

U Lwin said the party was waiting for more releases of political prisoners and were very hopeful that this might happen in the near future.

Thai interests

The talks between Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's military leaders are on the verge of a break-through, according to senior Thai military sources.

Khin Nyunt has just returned from a visit to Thailand

But it is in Thailand's interests to believe Khin Nyunt. The Thai Government has gone overboard in supporting the Burmese military government - with substantial aid packages for crop substitution programmes and promises of major economic co-operation in the future.

The government is keen to deflect opposition criticism of its policy of doing business with the junta as well as international criticism that is bound to follow.

General Chavalit told reporters that General Khin Nyunt told him that he saw Aung San Suu Kyi every two weeks.

"That's not the case" NLD spokesman U Lwin told the BBC. "He hasn't seen her for several months."

Thai military sources told the BBC that Khin Nyunt actually said they were seeing Aung San Suu Kyi through a channel of contacts rather than direct face-to-face meetings. U Lwin said that this was the case, and a military intelligence liaison officer was calling on Aung San Suu Kyi at least once a week.

Slow change

This is not the first time that General Chavalit has told journalists that there was about to be a political break-through in Burma. He told journalists something similar in July. He is known to be very close to Khin Nyunt.

Change in Burma is imperceptible and will not be in the form of major milestones

UN special envoy Razali Ismail

Diplomats in Rangoon say the talks between the two sides are obviously at a crucial stage. Aung San Suu Kyi appears very confident, they say.

But the fact remains that no one is revealing what, if any, the substance of the talks are.

Aung San Suu Kyi has told diplomats and senior party members that she had promised the Generals not to discuss the details of the talks with anyone, and she was keeping to that even if the military were not keeping their part of the bargain.

The signs in Rangoon seem to indicate that the talks may be on a verge of a break-through of sorts, but according to senior NLD sources this means movement from talks about talks to something substantive.

"We must remain patient" U Lwin told the BBC.

This seems to also reflect the UN special envoy, Razali Ismail's view.

"Change in Burma is imperceptible and will not be in the form of major milestones," he told the BBC.

For the moment everyone is advising patience.

"Although we don't know what, things are happening," said a diplomat who wanted to remain anonymous.

But the talks have been going on for nearly a year and there is growing impatience among pro-democracy supporters inside and outside Burma.

They want a clear indication that the talks are moving beyond the confidence-building stage and are becoming a substantive dialogue involving some kind of power-sharing proposals.