She is unlikely to take a formal role in Myanmar's government, but pro-democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi will steer the incoming government of her National League for Democracy (NLD), the party said on Sunday. She will stay on as party head.

Myanmar's parliament last week elected Htin Kyaw, a close friend and confidant of the Nobel peace prize laureate, as president, making him the first head of state since the 1960s who does not hail from a military background.

Suu Kyi led the NLD to a historic landslide election win in November, but a constitution drafted by the former junta bars her from the top office because her two children and her late husband do not have Myanmar citizenship.