Brussels, 13/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - Returning from its visit to Burma this week, the Troika of European diplomats headed by Carsten Nilaus Pedersen, regional director at the Danish foreign ministry, will now provide Member States with information about the outcome of its discussions with some of the min players in the Burmese reconciliation process. Unable to meet Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, one of the key members of the ruling junta, officially "held up" by storms, the EU representatives explained the EU's expectations and sounded the political situation with various government representatives, opponents and the country's ethnic minorities. The Europeans emphasised the need to move on to the stage of negotiating detail (the negotiations are currently at a standstill), "immediately" liberating political prisoner and an unconditional lifting of the heavy restrictions on free speech and freedom to hold meetings. While recognising some progress on the political front, such as the release of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi after two-years of house arrest, they explained that the EU was still fully concerned about the human rights situation in ethnic minority regions, the persistence of forced labour (despite the setting up of an International Labour Office representation) and extensive opium poppy farming, making Burma one of the world's leading opium suppliers. All this may well mean the EU's common position at the end of October will be an anticlimax.