Warning on Suu Kyi verdict

Burma's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was bracing for the worst, as she awaits today's verdict in her high-profile trial, gathering medicine and books to prepare for a feared prison term, her lawyer said.

And the country's military rulers have warned her supporters not to mount protests when the verdict is announced. The frail 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner was "physically and mentally fine, and very alert", Nyan Win, one of her lawyers, said.

"She is getting ready for any result," he said. "She is preparing for the worst." She gave her lawyers a list of requested items, which they were able to bring her, Nyan Win added. "She is collecting medicine and many books in English, French and Burmese." She requested French history books, John Le Carre novels, Winston Churchill biographies and Burmese-language books on Buddhism, among others.

Ms Suu Kyi is charged with violating the terms of her long house arrest when an American intruder swam across a lake and spent two nights at her home in early May. She faces a minimum of three years and maximum of five years in prison.

Ms Suu Kyi's trial in a court at Insein prison has drawn international condemnation since it opened on 18 May. She is widely expected to be convicted, although there has been speculation she may stay under house arrest rather than go to jail.

Ms Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the past 20 years, since leading a pro-democracy uprising that was crushed by the junta.