(ROME) - The EU's special envoy for Myanmar, Piero Fassino, on Tuesday slammed the decision by the country's ruling junta to extend opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest as "unacceptable."

The move "has no justification," the Italian Fassino said in a statement issued in Rome, adding: "The decision is all the more unacceptable in that it even violates the maximum duration of five years under Myanmar laws for house arrest."

Myanmar officials went to the lakeside Yangon home that has been Aung San Suu Kyi's prison for most of the last 18 years to announce the extension of her house arrest on Tuesday.

Sixteen of the Nobel peace laureate's supporters were arrested.

Fassino said: "The simultaneous arrests of several activists of the National League for Democracy outside Aung San Suu Kyi's house confirms a repressive line that can only further delay a political solution to the Myanmar crisis.

"The European Union expresses its alarm and reiterates that the possibility of bringing national reconciliation to Myanmar as well as a democratic transition requires the opening of viable, concrete and sincere dialogue, which cannot happen if the opposition leader is deprived of her freedom," he said.

International calls for Aung San Suu Kyi's release have been overshadowed by high-level diplomacy aimed at convincing Myanmar's junta to allow a full-scale relief effort for victims of the devastating cyclone which left more than 133,000 people dead or missing.

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner also voiced deep disappointment.

"I deeply deplore the extension of the house arrest of Daw Aung San Su Kyi," she said in a statement Tuesday.

"I am... personally disappointed that a historic opportunity was missed to give a sign of reconciling political life in Myanmar at a time where national and social cohesion, and solidarity and dialogue are more needed than ever," Ferrero-Waldner said.

"I repeat my call for a release of all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Su Kyi and the opening of a sincere dialogue with all political stakeholders in Myanmar," she added.

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