Myanmar’s opposition, the National League for Democracy (NLD), Sunday re-elected pro-democracy activist and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi as party leader at a historic party conference, the first for the party, which had been suppressed under decades of military rule.

Aung San Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner, who entered parliament last year, was chosen to remain as NLD chairwoman unanimously by the party's 120-member central committee, a source told AFP news agency.

She is one of four women on the NLD's 15-member executive, a BBC report from Yangon said.

"For the benefit of the country we should unite and get along," she told the assembly of 900 delegates, chosen to attend the party congress that began Friday.

"This congress is about choosing the right leaders who will serve both the future of our organization and our country," she said.

Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of independence hero General Aung San, was placed under house arrest by the military junta in 1989. She was released after an election in 2010, from which she was barred. She was sworn into the parliament weeks after NLD's landslide victory in the by-elections last April.

The congress is being viewed as a sign of massive pro-democracy changes within the party, which is planning to bring about youth-oriented reforms amid differences of opinions between the party’s senior leadership and younger members.

To contact the editor, e-mail: