YANGON, Nov 11 (AFP) - Myanmar's junta chief Wednesday rejected "neo-colonialist" interference in the country's affairs as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed Asian nations to help it hold fair elections.

"The government is gearing up to hold the election in 2010 according to the new constitution," Than Shwe said in a message printed in the government-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper to mark the country's 89th National Day.

"Nowadays, certain neo-colonialist countries are interfering in the internal affairs of their target countries with the intention of widening the scope of their domination in various fields," he added.

The Obama administration is trying a new approach of engaging with Myanmar's military junta, last week sending two senior officials to the isolated state to try to promote a new dialogue after years of shunning the regime.

Clinton on Wednesday enlisted the help of Asian countries, especially China, India and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in securing political reform in the military-ruled nation.

"We would like to see countries individually and through ASEAN reach out to the Burmese leadership, persuade them to start planning for free, fair and credible elections in 2010," Clinton said, using the country's former name.

Myanmar, an ASEAN member since 1997, is planning elections under a new constitution that was ushered in last year in a referendum held days after a devastating cyclone killed around 138,000 people.

The poll is part of a seven-step "Road to Democracy" that critics have derided as a sham because pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest while there are an estimated 2,100 political prisoners in Myanmar.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy also released a National Day statement Wednesday, urging "meaningful political dialogue to solve the political, economic, social, educational and health crises (and) for national reconciliation".

The 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate was sentenced to another 18 months of house arrest in August. She has already been in detention for 14 of the past 20 years.

The NLD won a landslide victory in elections in 1990 but the ruling junta never allowed it to take office.