The comments by the 65-year-old Nobel peace laureate, in an interview with Reuters six days after her release from house arrest, were the strongest yet illustrating her intention and desire to engage the junta to bring about democratic reforms.

“We have not ruled out cooperation with military,” she said in a telephone interview from her home in Myanmar’s former capital, Yangon. Asked to elaborate on her wish for a “non-violent, peaceful revolution” in the former British colony also known as Burma, she said: “let’s put it as significant change rather than dramatic change. Drama isn’t always for the best.”

Although she said she would review her earlier support of Western sanctions, she doubted multinational companies could nudge the country toward economic and political reforms.

“We are going to re-assess the situation because we want to find out if it really is, as it has been put, that sanctions have failed at the expense of the people,” she said.