Myanmar's government, military and armed ethnic groups held talks in Yangon on Friday as negotiations to end decades of civil war entered a last-gasp phase before a historic November election.

Long-standing enemies have come to the negotiating table since a quasi-civilian government took power four years ago as the former junta-run nation bids to reach a ceasefire deal and resolve bloody ethnic conflicts.

Thailand on Friday said it would indict 72 people including a senior army officer over human trafficking after the plight of desperate Myanmar and Bangladesh migrants stranded at sea triggered an international outcry over the grim trade.

The move comes after vast people-smuggling networks unraveled in May when thousands of migrants were abandoned in open waters and jungle camps by traffickers following a Thai crackdown, a crisis that eventually forced a Southeast Asia-wide response.

Beijing on Thursday hit out at long jail sentences handed to more than 150 Chinese nationals for illegal logging in Myanmar, in the latest tremor to shake relations between the neighbors.

The mass sentencing, which has sparked outraged editorials in Chinese state-run media, comes after the loggers were arrested in January during a crackdown on illegal forestry activities in northern Kachin state, which borders China.

The Myanmar government and armed ethnic minority groups resumed critical talks on Wednesday to reach a nationwide ceasefire agreement that would end six decades of fighting before an upcoming general election that threatens to upend hard-won progress toward a deal.

More than a dozen ethnic minority groups and government representatives have been in talks for more than 18 months and a key negotiator warned that failure to reach an accord could trigger a fresh round of fighting if the military takes action. The general election, which would usher in a new president, takes place in November.

Myanmar's powerful army chief has vowed to respect the outcome of November's landmark elections and has not ruled out becoming president if asked to take the top post.

"Whoever wins I will respect the result if they win fairly," General Min Aung Hlaing told the BBC in a rare interview with a Western news outlet released Monday.

Myanmar's navy has discovered over a hundred migrants stranded for weeks on a southern island, state media said Tuesday, in the wake of a regional boat crisis earlier this year.

The group of 102 men were picked up by Myanmar's navy off the coast of the country's southernmost Tanintharyi region, according to a report by the Global New Light of Myanmar.

Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday said her opposition National League for Democracy would participate in a historic general election in Myanmar set for November, the first to be contested by the party in a quarter of a century.

The confirmation comes after Myanmar on Wednesday set November 8 as the day for polls expected to be the most important election in a generation.

Myanmar's president Thursday reaffirmed his vow to hold a "free and fair" election after the country set the date for what many hope will be the most democratic vote in a generation for the former junta-run nation.

Millions will cast their votes in historic general elections on November 8 that are likely to be the first time in 25 years that Aung San Suu Kyi and her opposition party have taken part in a nationwide poll.

Myanmar on Wednesday announced November 8 as the date for a historic general election set to be the first contested by Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition in a quarter of a century.

The announcement from the country's election commission fires the starting gun for the much-anticipated poll in the former junta-run nation, which has launched a series of reforms since the end of outright military rule in 2011.

Myanmar's parliament Thursday dealt a body blow to Aung San Suu Kyi's hopes of amending a junta-era constitution that bars her from the presidency before landmark elections, voting down a bill to end the military's effective veto on charter change.

The vote, held after three days of energetic debate between uniformed soldiers and elected MPs, saw parliament shoot down a draft amendment that would have loosened the military's political stranglehold.