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Burma's jailed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has insisted she is not guilty of violating the terms of her house arrest, her lawyer said.
He said Ms Suu Kyi was being held in a "guest room" at the top security Insein jail in Rangoon, but seemed physically well and was "mentally strong". Western governments were quick to condemn the new charges against Ms Suu Kyi and call for her immediate release.
She faces trial on Monday over an apparently uninvited visit by a US man.
"Suu Kyi said that she believes that she will be found 'not guilty' over her connection with the American intruder," her lawyer Kyi Win told the Thailand-based independent Burmese publication, Irrawaddy.
Reports say Ms Suu Kyi was charged under the country's Law Safeguarding the State from the Dangers of Subversive Elements.
The charges carry a maximum jail term of five years, which would stretch her detention past its supposed expiry date on 27 May and beyond the 2010 elections.
World leaders and human rights groups have denounced the move as a pretext for Burma's military regime to silence its chief opponent ahead of next year's election.
'Uninvited guest'
The charges follow an incident in which an American man swam across a lake to her home and stayed there secretly for two days. His motives remain unclear.
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He is expected to be tried on immigration and security offences, although the charges are yet to be confirmed by the government.
The Burmese authorities have described the American as a 53-year-old Vietnam war veteran and resident of the state of Missouri.
Ms Suu Kyi was detained after her party's victory in a general election in 1990 and has been under house arrest for much of the past 19 years.
