The United States has welcomed the move by Burmese authorities to allow opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to travel inside the country and address her supporters.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters Monday that the United States is encouraged by Aung San Suu Kyi's recent talks with the Burmese government and her new ability to travel. Nuland also commended the civilian-led government that took office in March for permitting the Nobel laureate to speak to her supporters.

The 66-year-old leader of the opposition National League for Democracy has spent much of the last two decades in detention and isolation. She was released from her most recent house arrest only after elections last November.

Since her release, she has held two rounds of talks with a government minister, and she made her first political foray outside her home city of Rangoon Sunday.

Hundreds of people lined roadways to greet the Nobel laureate as she made stops in the northern towns of Bago and Thanatpin during her one-day trip, which unfolded without incident.

Aung San Suu Kyi called for unity and asked crowds to support her National League for Democracy party, which the previous military government disbanded before general elections last November.

The international community has largely denounced Burma's 2011 vote as a sham, but the United States has said that sanctions alone have proved to be ineffective in trying to restore democracy in the southeast Asian country.

Washington appointed its first special envoy for Burma earlier this month to coordinate efforts with U.S. allies to get Burma's new government to implement democratic reforms.

In 2003, during a political tour of upper Burma, as many as 70 of Aung San Suu Kyi's supporters were killed in an attack widely seen as an assassination attempt by a pro-government mob. The NLD leader escaped harm, but was later arrested by government security forces and sentenced to seven years of house arrest.