RANGOON: A senior US official has paid a rare visit to Burma for talks on boosting relations, state media say, in the latest sign of a possible change in approach by Washington.
The visit comes as the European Union is considering easing sanctions on Burma next month if it saw democratic progress there, the EU's senior Burma envoy said.
Stephen Blake, director of mainland Southeast Asian affairs at the US State Department, met Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win in the administrative capital of Naypyidaw on Tuesday, the New Light of Burma newspaper said.
The government-run paper said they held "cordial discussions on issues of mutual interests and promotion of bilateral relations between the Union of Burma and the United States". The trip comes as US President Barack Obama's administration continues to review the tough stance his predecessor George W Bush took against Burma's junta.
Sources in Naypyidaw said it was the first time a senior US official had visited the city to promote relations between the two countries.
They also said a reception held by the US embassy for officials in Naypyidaw to introduce the visiting director was the first held by any foreign mission in the capital.
"Burma and the US have been friendly countries since the beginning. They were also the first country to recognise our independence from the British in 1948," a senior Burmese official said."
They misunderstood our country's situation after the 1988 uprising. We will not understand each other without talking. It was the first time a director of the US visited here for talks — the US did what they should do," he said.
Burma has been ruled by the army since 1962 and a student-led uprising in 1988 ended in a brutal military crackdown which left 3,000 people dead.
The junta ignored a landslide election victory by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party in 1990 and critics say general elections planned for next year are a sham aimed at entrenching the generals' power.
The European Council, the EU's main decision-making body, could vote for an easing of sanctions if Burma's junta relaxes restrictions on opponents ahead of the 2010 elections, the EU's senior Burma envoy, Piero Fassino, said yesterday.
"The European Council many times declared we are ready to change the sanctions, suspend the sanctions, if there are some positive steps in the direction of our goal," Mr Fassino said.
"If in the next month, if there is some positive evolution, for example putting in place real democratic guarantees, we'll consider this."
The European Council's external relations council will discuss sanctions against Burma at the end of April.
Mr Fassino said the EU would only consider next year's elections to be free and fair if the government passed fair electoral rules and freed political prisoners, including Mrs Suu Kyi. (AFP)
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