Her visit marks a new milestone in the political changes that have swept through the country formerly known as Burma since decades of outright military rule ended last year, bringing to power a new quasi-civilian government.

"I would like to do my best for the interests of the people," Suu Kyi told reporters before her plane left Yangon airport.

She will visit Switzerland, Norway, Britain, France and Ireland on her more than two week tour, which will include a speech in Oslo for her 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

She leaves as western Myanmar is rocked by sectarian tensions between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya that President Thein Sein has warned could disrupt the country's fragile reform process.

A spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party said the former political prisoner had instructed him to work "to help both sides equally" before she left for Europe.