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US President Obama calls for further Burma reforms US President Obama in landmark Burma visit
(about 11 hours later)
US President Obama has urged Burma's rulers to continue political reforms, ahead of a historic visit. US President Barack Obama is making a historic visit to Burma, the first by a sitting US president.
On Monday, Mr Obama will be the first serving American president to visit Burma, which has been praised in the West for reforms over the past year. The visit is intended to show support for the reform process put in place by Burmese President Thein Sein since the end of military rule in November 2010.
Answering critics who have highlighted continued human rights abuses in Burma, Mr Obama said the country was moving in "a better direction". Ahead of the visit Mr Obama urged Burma's leaders to continue to reform, saying more progress was needed.
But he said "much greater progress" was needed in future. Critics warn the visit could be too hasty, with political prisoners behind bars and ethnic conflicts unresolved.
"I don't think anybody is under any illusion that Burma's arrived, that they're where they need to be," Mr Obama told reporters at a press conference in Thailand. 'No illusions'
"On the other hand, if we waited to engage until they had achieved a perfect democracy, my suspicion is we'd be waiting an awful long time," he added. Mr Obama touched down in Rangoon in Air Force One on Monday morning. He will spend some six hours in the country but will not visit the capital, Nay Pyi Taw.
Mr Obama is on a tour of South East Asia, which began in the Thai capital Bangkok on Sunday - his first foreign trip after his re-election as president.
There he met Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and King Bhumibol, the world's longest-serving monarch.
Unresolved conflicts
In Burma, he is due to hold talks with President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
He will also give a speech at Rangoon University, one of the hotbeds of pro-democracy protests in 1988 that were violently suppressed by the regime.
In the past year, the Burmese authorities have freed hundreds of political prisoners and held the country's first contested election.
Over the past year the US and other Western nations have relaxed the sanctions they had imposed on Burma, which was ruled by a brutal military regime for five decades. Instead his time will be spent in Burma's commercial capital, meeting both Thein Sein and the leader of the opposition, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
However, around 300 political prisoners remain in detention, according to rights groups. Mr Obama will also give a speech at Rangoon University, at the heart of pro-democracy protests in 1988 that were violently suppressed by the regime, and is expected to announce an aid pledge worth $170m (£107m).
Ethnic conflicts also remain unresolved, including an increasingly bitter confrontation between Muslim Rohingyas and Buddhist Rakhine people in Rakhine state. Speaking in the Thai capital, Bangkok, on Sunday, he said his visit was not an unqualified endorsement of the Burmese government.
US officials say they have been seeking assurances that Burma had distanced itself from North Korea, after accusations emerged in 2010 that the two states were sharing nuclear technology. "I don't think anybody is under any illusion that Burma's arrived, that they're where they need to be," he said.
After visiting Burma, Mr Obama will head to Cambodia to join a meeting of the regional bloc Asean. "On the other hand, if we waited to engage until they had achieved a perfect democracy, my suspicion is we'd be waiting an awful long time," he added.
Analysts say the US is trying to counter the dominating influence of China in the region. Mr Obama is being accompanied by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - who returns to Burma almost a year after her first visit.
But US officials have repeatedly insisted that they want to work with China. Thein Sein's government came to power after widely-criticised polls in November 2010 that saw military rule replaced with a military-backed civilian government.
Since then - to the surprise of many - his administration has embarked on a reform process. Many - but not all - political prisoners have been freed, censorship has been relaxed and some economic reforms enacted.
Ms Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest shortly after the polls. Her NLD party, which boycotted the elections, has since rejoined the political process. It now has a small presence in parliament, after a landslide win in by-elections deemed generally free and fair in April.
In response, many Western nations have relaxed sanctions against Burma and begun a process of engagement.
But rights groups have cautioned against a rush to embrace the South East Asian nation, warning that political prisoners remain behind bars and ethnic conflicts are unresolved.
In recent months, bitter communal violence between Muslim Rohingyas and Buddhist Rakhine people in Rakhine state has left more than 100,000 people - mostly Muslim Rohingyas - displaced.
A recent prisoner amnesty reportedly included no political prisoners. The Burmese government has since announced another one which, say activists, does include some political detainees.
After visiting Burma, Mr Obama will head to Cambodia to join a meeting of the Association of South East Asian Nations, in a trip that underlines the shift in US foreign policy focus to the Asia-Pacific region.