Suu Kyi takes her place in parliament

Aung San Suu Kyi, centre, and MPs from the National League for Democracy swear oaths in Burma's parliament in Naypyitaw yesterday (Reuters)

Aung San Suu Kyi was sworn in as a Burmese MP yesterday, capping a tenacious, decades-long journey from political prisoner to parliamentarian that will enable the country's main opposition party to take its struggle for democratic rule inside the country's army-backed government for the first time.

The swearing-in ceremony in Naypyitaw cements a fragile detente between Ms Suu Kyi's movement and the administration of President Thein Sein, which has engineered a series of reforms since taking power from the military junta last year.

But some analysts see her entry into the legislative branch as a gamble which will achieve little beyond legitimising a regime that needs her support to end years of isolation from the West and get lingering sanctions lifted.