Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced to an additional 18 months house arrest by a court in Rangoon.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate, was convicted of breaking the terms of her house arrest by allowing a US man into her lakeside home in May.

She was jailed for three years with hard labor, but this was commuted to house arrest, an official said. The American national, John Yettaw, was also on trial and was sentenced to 7 years in jail.

Suu Kyi had denied the charge but said she expected to be convicted, the BBC reported.

Journalists had unexpectedly been allowed to enter the courtroom in Rangoon's Insein prison shortly before the sentence was announced.

Following the reading of Suu Kyi's sentence there was a five-minute recess before the country's home minister entered the courtroom and read out a special order from Myanmar's military ruler Than Shwe.

The order said he was commuting the sentence and that it could be served under house arrest.