The one-hour meeting with President Thein Sein in the capital Naypyidaw marked a rare encounter between the Nobel laureate and one of the former top generals who kept her locked up for much of the past two decades.[break]
"It is an important step for national reconciliation. We should all work together," Ko Ko Hlaing, chief political adviser to the president, told AFP ahead of the talks.
The meeting was held behind closed doors at the presidential office, according to a government official and a member of Suu Kyi´s entourage, but it was unclear what was discussed.
It was the democracy icon´s first visit to the capital Naypyidaw, at the invitation of the government.
The meeting comes five months after power was handed to a new nominally civilian government led by Thein Sein, a former general and junta prime minister, following nearly half a century of military rule.
A Western diplomat in the army-dominated nation who did not want to be named described the dialogue with Suu Kyi as "significant" but said the government´s motives were unclear.
The 66-year-old dissident was released from house arrest shortly after a November election that was won by the military´s political proxies and marred by complaints of cheating.
Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a 1990 vote but was never allowed by the junta to take power.
The NLD boycotted last year´s poll because of rules seemingly designed to exclude Suu Kyi, and was stripped of its status as a political party as a result.
But more recently there have been signs that the new government is softening its stance towards its critics, with Suu Kyi holding two rounds of talks with labour minister Aung Kyi in Yangon in recent weeks.
On Sunday the daughter of Myanmar´s liberation hero General Aung San travelled unhindered on her first overtly political trip outside her home city since being released from detention, addressing thousands of supporters.
The authorities warned her in June that such a tour could spark chaos and riots, but the one-day excursion passed without incident.
The new government has also called for peace talks with ethnic rebels and is allowing UN rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana to visit Myanmar next week for the first time in more than a year.
The UN envoy has been a vocal critic of Myanmar´s rulers, enraging the junta after his last trip by suggesting that human rights violations may amount to crimes against humanity and could warrant a UN inquiry.
David Mathieson, a Thailand-based Myanmar researcher with Human Rights Watch, said it was impossible to say whether the recent conciliatory gestures were "complete theatre" or "a real moment of change."
He added: "We simply don´t know the inner workings of the new government. But in terms of basic freedoms and whether the human rights situation is improving, definitely not at all."
The international community has called for a number of reforms in Myanmar including the release of around 2,000 political prisoners and an end to rights abuses, particularly against ethnic minorities.
In a further sign the new government is seeking to improve its international image, Myanmar´s state newspapers this week dropped slogans lambasting foreign media such as the BBC for "killer broadcasts" and "sowing hatred".
Myanmar´s generals moved their entire government from the economic hub of Yangon to the current remote jungle location in late 2005, after building the new administrative capital in secret.
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