Suu Kyi speaks at length about Rakhine troubles

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi spoke at length about her country's troubled western state of Rakhine at a Sydney conference on Sunday and appealed to Southeast Asian neighbours for help, Australia's prime minister said, reports Reuters.

"We discussed the situation in Rakhine state at considerable length today," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters at the end of a summit of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Australia, much of it held behind closed doors.

"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi addressed the matter comprehensively at some considerable length herself... She seeks support from ASEAN and other nations to provide help from a humanitarian and capacity-building point of view," he said, using a Burmese honorific.

Suu Kyi's spokesman, Zaw Htay, was not immediately available for comment on Turnbull's comments.

Turnbull did not tell reporters whether Suu Kyi gave details of what support she was seeking or whether she spoke specifically about violence against the Rohingya, however ASEAN's Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance has been providing some aid since October.