Myanmar's Suu Kyi 'unwell', scraps Australia public appearance

Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi today pulled out of a public speech and question-and-answer session in Sydney because she was "not feeling well", the event's organisers said.

Suu Kyi has been under fire internationally for her public silence about a military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state that has seen nearly 700,000 of the Muslim Rohingya minority flee to Bangladesh.

Suu Kyi, who attended an special ASEAN-Australia summit on Friday-Sunday, was in Canberra for talks with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull Monday. She had been due to make a keynote speech at the Lowy Institute think-tank in Sydney Tuesday.

The speech and subsequent Q and A session would have been the only public comments the Nobel Prize winner would have made during her Australia trip.

"This afternoon the Lowy Institute was informed by the Myanmar embassy that the State Counsellor will no longer be able to participate in this event as she is not feeling well," a spokeswoman for the think-tank said in a statement.

"Accordingly, the event is now cancelled."