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VILNIUS, June 30, 2011 (AFP) - Myanmar's iconic opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday thanked democratic nations for their support and said she hopes to see her homeland take its seat alongside them.

"We appreciate all the things that the Community of Democracies has done to promote empowerment, energisation and engagement," the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said in a pre-recorded video address played at a gathering of the grouping in Lithuania.

"We look forward to the time when our country can be an active, energetic, powerful member of the Community of Democracies," she said.

Officials in Vilnius said the video had been recorded several days ago.

On Wednesday, Myanmar's regime told pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi to halt all political activities and warned that her planned first national tour since being freed in November from seven straight years of house arrest could spark riots and chaos.

The Community of Democracies is an informal grouping of more than a hundred countries set up in 2000.

Its stated goal is to strengthen and deepen democratic norms and practices worldwide.

Former Soviet-ruled Lithuania is currently in charge of the Community of Democracies, whose East European members are keen to share know-how built up over two decades since the collapse of their region's communist regimes.

Lithuania organised the gathering in its capital Vilnius to mark the end of its two-year term at the helm. It hands over to Mongolia on Friday.

"I was released during the period when Lithuania was at the head of the Community of Democracies. This to me, seemed a very good omen," Suu Kyi said.

"This, to me, indicates that we in Burma will achieve in the not too distant future what we have been working for for so long," she added.