Updated on Tuesday, November 03, 2009, 10:04 IST Tags:US, Myanmar, visit

Yangon: Two senior US envoys are due to arrive in Myanmar Tuesday for talks with the ruling junta and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, on the most high profile American visit to the country in 14 years.

The visit by Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell and his deputy Scot Marciel is the latest move by President Barack Obama's administration to engage the military regime.

The US pair are unlikely to see the reclusive chief of the junta, Than Shwe, but will instead meet Prime Minister Thein Sein in the remote jungle capital of Naypyidaw today, Myanmar officials said.

They will then travel to Yangon tomorrow to meet Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi, whose plight sparked international outrage earlier this year when her house arrest was extended by 18 months, they said.

Campbell is the highest ranking US official to travel to Myanmar -- formerly known as Burma -- since Madeleine Albright went as US ambassador to the United Nations in 1995 under the administration of President Bill Clinton.



"We see this visit as the start of direct engagement between the US and Myanmar government," Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party (NLD), told reporters.

"But we do not expect the exact and big change from this meeting. This visit is just a first stage."

Bureau Report