The trial of Burma's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has ended amid heightened security around the area near the prison court where she is being tried.

Hundrcds of trucks full of armed soldiers are stationed around Insein Prison where the trial was being held. The court will announce its verdict tomorrow, according the opposition leader's lawyer, Nyan Win.

In the meantime international pressure on the junta is expected to mount.

Aung San Suu Kyi is on trial for breaking the terms of her house arrest, accused of harbouring an unwanted and uninvited American Vietnam War veteran, John William Yettaw, who swam across the lake behind her house to her back garden.

Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyers presented their closing arguments last Friday, in which they contended that the law from the 1974 constitution under which she has been charged is no longer valid.

They also argued that the security guards who are posted there to ensure that Ms Suu Kyi remained inside her compound, should be held responsible for any intrusion on her property.

They contend that Aung San Suu Kyi was never officially under detention - according to the government's wording - and had been kept in her Rangoon residence for "security reasons", so she could not have broken the terms of her house arrest.

If she is found guilty, she faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Mr Yettaw has been charged with criminal trespass, which carries a maximum jail term of three months.

He also faces a municipal charge for swimming in a non-swimming area and is accused of immigration violations.

Mr Yettaw has pleaded not guilty and explained in court that he had a dream that Ms Suu Kyi would be assassinated and he had gone to warn her.

On the final day of the trial, Ms Suu Kyi's defence lawyers challenged the prosecution's final statement and called a rebuttal witness, the former Burmese ambassador to Geneva, Nyunt Maung Shein who often explained to foreign diplomats that Ms Suu Kyi was not under house arrest, but in protective custody for her own safety.

"A good legal ploy by the lawyers, but unlikely to change the court's mind," said a Burmese legal expert in Rangoon.

"We are confident that we will win the case if things go according to the law," Nyan Win told reporters outside the court on Tuesday.

But few believe there will any other verdict than guilty.

"The trial has been entirely scripted and the end already decided beforehand," the British ambassador in Rangoon, Mark Canning told the Bangkok Post after a rare occasion when he was allowed to attend the court hearing.

"No one is in any doubt about the outcome," said Moe Moe, a taxi driver in Rangoon. "Those men in green in Naypyidaw [the new capital some 400km north of Rangoon] know she is the people's hero and the real leader of this country."

While most people in Burma are waiting anxiously to hear the outcome of the trial, few analysts believe that a guilty verdict will spark any major public protests like those in 2007, when rising food and fuel prices brought thousands out onto the streets in ant-government demonstrations led by Buddhist monks.

"There is no doubt people are angry at the regime, and they will be even angrier if they sentence Daw Suu, but they also feel powerless against the authorities, especially after the military crackdown against the Saffron Revolt two years ago," a Western diplomat based in Rangoon said.

People are too worried and pre-occupied with day-to-day survival to take to the streets, said several journalists.

There has been a storm of international protests ever since the opposition leader was put on trial more than two months ago.

Last week many Asean countries at the regional grouping's meeting in Phuket called for her release.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also attended the meeting, promised important changes in relations towards the military regime if Ms Suu Kyi was freed.

"If she was released, that would open up opportunities... to expand our relationship with Burma, including investments," Mrs Clinton told reporters in Phuket.

But the regime has reacted angrily to what it regards as interference in its internal affairs, and said bullying would not work. The demand for the release of Ms Suu Kyi and political prisoners is "nonsense and unreasonable", said Burma's state-run newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar.

Ms Suu Kyi's case was purely a legal matter, the paper said. "She must face punishment in accordance with the law: the court will hand down a reasonable term to her if she is found guilty, and it will release her if she is found not guilty."

But critics say the trial has been extremely biased. While the prosecution was allowed 23 witnesses, of whom 14 took the stand, the defence was only permitted two of the four witnesses they requested to appear in court. Burma does not have an independent judiciary, according to the human rights activists. "It is not a question of whether the proceedings are fair or not, she should never have gone on trial in the first place. This is a form of political and legal theatre," Amesty International's Burma researcher, Benjamin Zawacki said. "As a prisoner of conscience she should be released immediately."

"These charges are a complete and crude fabrication, a pretext to keep Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in detention," the former UN human rights rapporteur for Burma, Professor Paulo Pinheiro said.

As Ms Suu Kyi now awaits the outcome of her trial, international pressure is set to increase further. Already efforts are being made to highlight her plight. She has just been made the UK-human rights organisation Amnesty International's "Ambassador of Conscience" for 2009. The award was accepted on her behalf by the Irish rock band U2, who previously received the award and are long-time campaigners for Ms Suu Kyi's release.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent more than 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest. Her latest detention began in May 2003, after she and her supporters were attacked by pro-junta thugs while travelling in central Burma. She was first arrested in July 1989 and spent six years under house until she was released in 1995.

For the past five years she has been in virtual solitary confinement, being allowed only very occasional visits by her doctor and lawyer in that time.

The UN's special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, has been able to see her six times over the past few years, but the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was not permitted to see her during his two-day visit to the country earlier this month.

"It is appropriate that she should be given this award [Amnesty's Ambassador of Conscience] almost 20 years since she began her long fight for human rights in Burma," said Benjamin Zawacki of Amnesty International.

"Twenty years on and still in detention, she remains a beacon of hope for all Burmese people and the world as a whole."

But most observers and analysts do not believe the country's top generals will heed the international calls for justice and the relase of Ms Suu Kyi. "They have completely ignored all international concerns and gone on with their devastating, shattering repression of all dissent with extremely heavy sentences being handed down for the crimes of democratic protest," said Mr Pinheiro.