Brussels, 09/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Union is prepared to back the new developments in the dialogue recently engaged in between the Junta in power and opposition in Burma. These initial contacts are the most interesting developments since 1990, but are not irreversible, is what the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council empahsises in a press release published Thursday evening. Concrete measures are necessary, it says, to achieve national reconciliation, democracy and the respect of human rights, as the political situation "remains of concern". The EU says it "sincerely hopes" that the initial confidential contacts between the Burmese regime and the opposition headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace prize winner placed under house arrest for five months now, "will lead to real progress in all these fields" (see EUROPE of2 February, p.4, for the recent Troika mission to Burma).