YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar’s military government on Friday extended the house arrest of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for another year, defying an outpouring of international appeals for the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s freedom.

The 60-year-old Suu Kyi has spent more than 11 of the past 17 years in detention.

She has been continually detained for the past four years, spending most of it confined to her residence in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city.

Her current one-year detention order was due to expire Sunday and the extension had been widely expected despite calls by international groups and world leaders for Suu Kyi’s freedom.

The government’s action was not officially announced but was privately confirmed by security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the matter’s sensitivity.

The United Nations, the European Union and the U.S. government all repeated their previous calls for the release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, as well as for moves toward democracy in Myanmar.

The first sign of the extension came when neighbors saw a silver-gray Toyota with tinted windows enter Suu Kyi’s compound at 3:55 p.m. They were assumed to be government officials because she is allowed no visitors. They stayed for about 10 minutes.

One official confirmed that the car carried officials who presented Suu Kyi with a new detention order. The detention order takes effect when it is read to the person concerned. The official asked that neither he nor his agency, which is concerned with security affairs, be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Suu Kyi, the head of Myanmar’s National League for Democracy party and daughter of Myanmar’s martyred founding father, has been held continuously since May 30, 2003, when her motorcade was attacked by a pro-junta mob during a political tour of northern Myanmar. The government considers her a threat to public order and she is not allowed any telephone contact with the outside.

The junta took power in 1988 after crushing pro-democracy demonstrations in Myanmar, then known as Burma. It refused to hand over power when, on May 27, 1990, Suu Kyi’s party won a general election by a landslide, insisting the country first needed a new constitution. Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

The military has continued to rule while persecuting members of the pro-democracy movement.

Worldwide supporters of Suu Kyi expressed disappointment – but not surprise – at her continued detention.

In Washington, the Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, called the junta’s decision inexcusable.

“Nothing more clearly reflects the predatory nature of this regime than its keeping this heroic Nobel Prize laureate under house arrest,” he said in a statement. “It also demonstrates that more pressure rather than less needs to be exerted on this regime by the international community.”

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Myanmar’s pro-democracy community should be permitted to freely exercise its rights. He noted that President Bush took steps in recent days to maintain existing U.S. sanctions against Myanmar.

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the U.N.’s human rights expert for Myanmar, called it a “very regrettable decision” and said it was “counterproductive in terms of making a transition to democracy.”

“They say they are moving ahead, but they continue to hold 1,200 political prisoners, including the main members of the opposition,” he told The Associated Press by telephone from Cape Town, South Africa.

He also criticized the junta for refusing humanitarian appeals concerning prisoners serving sentences as long as 70 years. “It’s completely unacceptable,” he said.

Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi’s party, said the organization had not yet been able to confirm the decision. “However, if the detention is extended despite demands by the international community, this is a very uncivilized action,” he said.

The military rulers have given no sign they intend to free Suu Kyi.

“We don’t see any indication of her release despite demands from world leaders and unprecedented activity within the country,” Mya Aye, a prominent member of Myanmar’s 88 Generation Students’ Group, said before Suu Kyi’s extended detention was confirmed.

The 88 Generation group – named after the year in which the military brutally suppressed democracy protests – has in the past year picked up the mantle of opposition activism from Suu Kyi’s party, which has become moribund in her absence.

In Thailand, home to many Myanmar exiles, a spokesman for a prominent opposition group denounced the new detention order.

“It’s a very unlawful decision by the generals, so we are very frustrated. She is not a criminal and not a threat to national security,” said Zin Linn of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, a self-styled government-in-exile.