Aung San Suu Kyi will take the stand at her trial today, as the junta defied international outrage and threatened to extend her house arrest even if she is not convicted.

Lawyers said the Nobel peace prize winner would declare her innocence of charges that she breached the terms of her six-year detention by assisting an American man who swam to her lakeside home this month.

She faces up to five more years in jail if convicted at the trial in Yangon's notorious Insein prison, with critics accusing the military regime of trying to keep her locked up during elections due in 2010.

A top police officer said today that the junta had the right to extend her house arrest by six months, rejecting claims by her lawyers that Wednesday would officially mark the end of her latest six-year period in detention.

Brigadier General Myint Thein told reporters and diplomats invited to the hearing that the junta had considered freeing her but that the situation had "regretfully" changed since the incident involving US national John Yettaw.

He said she had only officially been under house arrest for four years and six months, "so according to the law, (authorities) can restrict her another six months to reach five years with the permission of the government."

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