Myanmar: US envoy meets Suu Kyi

: The highest-ranking American diplomat to visit Myanmar in 14 years offered improved relations with the country on Wednesday, if its military regime moves toward democracy, putting into action the Obama administration's new policy of engagement with the isolated country.

Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell spoke after talks with both the ruling generals and a rare meeting with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who has been under house arrest for most of the last two decades.

Campbell called on the military, which has ruled the impoverished country since 1962, to open a dialogue with the opposition and ethnic minority groups, which are seeking a measure of autonomy.

He also urged the military government to allow Suu Kyi more freedom to meet with people concerned with the political process, particularly her own party's senior executives.

Speaking at Yangon Airport on Wednesday Campbell said the US "reaffirmed our commitment to a dialogue among the government, the opposition and ethnic groups. The goal of such a dialogue would be national reconciliation and a fully inclusive political process in Burma."

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Campbell called on the government to grant Aung San Suu Kyi greater freedoms and said the US was keen to strengthen ties with Myanmar once conditions including "reciprocal and concrete efforts by the Burmese government" had been met.

Campbell and his deputy, Scot Marciel, are the highest-ranking American diplomats to visit Myanmar, also known as Burma, since 1995, when then-UN Ambassador Madeleine Albright made an official visit.

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Suu Kyi, dressed in a pink traditional Burmese jacket, appeared upbeat as she emerged from the hotel.

Later in the afternoon, Campbell met with leaders of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party at their headquarters.

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Details of the talks with Suu Kyi were not immediately known, but the meeting offered the Nobel Peace Prize laureate her first trip in years outside the confines of her home and a nearby government guesthouse, where she has met UN and junta officials in the past.

The 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years, mostly under house arrest and for shorter periods at Myanmar's notorious Insein Prison.

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Suu Kyi was recently sentenced to an additional 18 months of house arrest for briefly sheltering an uninvited American, in a trial that drew global condemnation.

The sentence means she will not be able to participate in next year's elections, which will be the first in two decades.

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On Wednesday, Campbell also met with Myanmar's Prime Minister General Thein Sein in the administrative capital of Naypyitaw.

For years, the United States had isolated the junta diplomatically and applied political and economic sanctions, which have failed to force the generals to respect human rights or release jailed political activists.

The Obama administration decided recently to step up diplomatic engagement as a way of promoting reforms.

However, while US officials are now sitting down with the generals, Washington has said it will maintain the sanctions until talks result in change.

Washington refers to Myanmar as Burma and Yangon as Rangoon, the names by which the country and its old capital were known before being changed by the junta.

While Myanmar's junta has praised the new US policy, it has shown no sign it intends to release Suu Kyi or initiate democratic and electoral reforms demanded by Suu Kyi's party ahead of elections planned for next year.