Profile of Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi is a Burmese democracy activist, member of parliament and leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

She was just two years old when her father, the independence hero General Aung San, was assassinated. After growing up in India and Burma, she went to Oxford University and settled in the UK after marrying the Tibet scholar Michael Aris in 1972.

In 1988, Ms Suu Kyi returned to Burma to care for her dying mother, despite the fact that mass demonstrations were breaking out against the military leadership.

She became involved in the uprising and was appointed general secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in September 1988, the month after thousands of demonstrators were killed by the military.

In 1990, the military leadership held a general election, but Ms Suu Kyi was barred from standing. The NLD won 82 percent of the seats in parliament, but the military refused to hand over power.

She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

The period from 2000-2009 saw Ms Suu Kyi placed in detention and under house arrest several times.

She was due to be released in 2009, but was charged with breaking the rules of her house arrest when an American man swam across a lake to enter her home.

The terms of her sentence meant she could not participate in the general elections in Burma in November 2010, the first since 1990.

Her house arrest was finally lifted in the days following the 2010 election, which saw a nominally civilian government elected to power. There were huge celebration outside her house in Rangoon.

Mr Cameron's visit today is the latest in a long series of high profile meetings. She held talks with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in December, while Foreign Secretary William Hague visited in January.

The NLD won 43 out of the 44 seats it contested in a by-election on April 1st. Ms Suu Kyi was elected to parliament to represent the constituency of Kawhmu following a landslide victory.