Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was charged today with violating terms of her house arrest and could face a prison term of up to five years.

Lawyer Hla Myo Myint said her trial was due to start on Monday.

The lawyer said Ms Suu Kyi, who has strong Oxford connections, was being tried after an American man sneaked into her home last week.

John Yettaw, 53, of Falcon, Missouri, has been charged with entering a restricted zone, and breaking immigration laws.

The lawyer spoke after coming out of Insein Prison, where Ms Suu Kyi, 63, and Mr Yettaw were being held.

A trial could justify another extension of Ms Suu Kyi's detention, which officially ends on May 27.

In the past the junta, which regards the Nobel Peace laureate as the biggest threat to its rule, has found reasons to extend her periods of house arrest, which international jurors say is illegal, even under Burma's own law.

Mr Yettaw was arrested last week for allegedly swimming a lake to secretly enter Ms Suu Kyi's home and stay there for two days. His motives remain unclear.

"Everyone is very angry with this wretched American. He is the cause of all these problems," Ms Suu Kyi's lawyer, Kyi Win, told reporters.

Ms Suu Kyi studied at St Hugh’s College in Oxford, from 1964 to 1967, and in 1972, married Oxford academic Dr Michael Aris, making her home in the city.

Her sons were educated in Oxford.

She returned to Burma in 1988 to care for her mother and began campaigning against the junta. She was jailed from 1989 to 1995 and from 2000 to 2002.

In 1999, Dr Aris died of cancer, having been denied permission to enter Burma to see her.

She refused to leave Burma, recognising that the military junta would not permit her to return.

Since 2003 she has been under house arrest.