Aung San Suu Kyi

"The spirit of fraternity is very important": Aung San Suu Kyi. Photo: AP

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called for her once-banned party to unify as it prepares for landmark 2015 polls, conceding there had been ''some fighting'' over party positions.

Speaking at the first congress of her National League for Democracy on Saturday, she said ''the spirit of fraternity is very important'', adding ''there was some fighting'' internally.

That the government has allowed the meeting is, in itself, a milestone in a country emerging from decades of repressive military rule.

But the NLD faces concerns that it is politically inexperienced and led by veterans of the democracy struggle who are unwilling to give way to an eager, younger generation.

Even as its leaders, many of whom spent years in jail, relish their growing popularity and legitimacy, many are relatively old. Suu Kyi is 67, while fellow co-founders Tin Oo and Win Tin are 86 and 83 respectively.

In a sign of internal tensions, four party members were banned from the congress - its first after years of organising in secret under the former junta. They were accused of trying to influence the voting ahead of the meeting.

Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years in detention before her release in late 2010, is widely expected to be reappointed party head.

Referring to the vote for party chairman, Suu Kyi urged delegates to choose a ''leader who is in accord with this era, in accord with this country and the party''.

In addition to electing a party chairman and a 120-member central committee, the 900 delegates will try to hammer out a party platform in advance of general elections. In the past, it focused more on what it opposed than what it stood for.

Long years as ''outlaws'' far from power have also left the party disorganised, hierarchical, short on management skills and not always true to its democratic ideals. During two decades in the shadows, leaders were appointed, decisions made secretly, communication restricted.

''We don't like the generals, but at least they have experience,'' the editor of Open News Journal Thiha Saw said. ''The party's trying to do capacity building, but will it be ready by 2015?''

While Suu Kyi is very popular, her stature has discouraged decentralised decision-making, critics say, even as infighting and alleged cheating have tarnished local elections held since the middle of last year among the party's 1.2 million members.

Los Angeles Times, Agence France-Presse