Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Nobel Peace Prize-winning democracy advocate, is to be tried in Rangoon's notorious Insein Prison for violating conditions of her house arrest after an incident in which an American allegedly swam across a lake to her compound then spent two nights inside.

Ms Suu Kyi, who has been confined to her dilapidated colonial-era bungalow since May 2003, was taken to Insein yesterday and formally charged. The 63-year-old, who has suffered from low blood pressure and dehydration over the last week, is being held in a house on the prison compound until the trial, which is due to start on Monday.

The charges against Ms Suu Kyi, which carry a potential sentence of five years in prison and relate to the bar on her receiving visitors without government authorisation, have dismayed her supporters, some of whom were hoping she might be freed as the military regime prepares for promised elections next year.