Yangon - US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell - the highest ranking American official to visit military-ruled Myanmar in 14 years - met Wednesday with Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Campbell, accompanied by US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Scot Marciel, met with Thein Sein in the capital, Naypyitaw, before flying to Yangon, where he was allowed a rare interview with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi, who has been under house detention for 14 of the past 20 years, met for almost two hours at a hotel with Campbell and Marciel, who are on a two-day visit to Myanmar as part of US President Barack Obama's new policy of engagement with the pariah regime.
In an unusual display of openness in the military-run country, local journalists were allowed to take photos of Suu Kyi, 65, as she arrived and left the hotel.
"Smile for us, aunty Suu," the cameramen called when she emerged from the meeting.
"Is this a beautiful smile?" Suu Kyi joked, beaming and seemingly in good health.
Questions on the outcome of her meeting were not permitted, but Campbell and Marciel were expected to have a press conference at Yangon Airport before their departure Wednesday evening.
The latest detention stint for Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar independence hero Aung San, has lasted six years, and she was recently sentenced to another 18 months of house detention, a sufficient sentence to keep her out of the picture when the junta stages a general election planned next year.
Campbell was expected to use his visit to press the junta to release Suu Kyi and about 2,100 other political prisoners before the 2010 polls.
The United States has indicated that it might consider lifting some of its economic sanctions on Myanmar if the regime frees Suu Kyi and takes other measures to assure next year's election is "inclusive," free and fair.
On Tuesday, Campbell and Marceil met with Information Minister Kyaw Hsan, Science and Technology Minister U Thaung and representatives of the Election Commission in Naypyitaw, 350 kilometres north of Myanmar's old capital of Yangon.
They were not granted an audience with military supremo Senior General Than Shwe.
The US envoys also planned talks with leaders of Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, the Committee Representing the People's Parliament and the pro-junta National Unity Party before departing.
Marciel is to travel to Thailand to participate in a public forum at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University on US foreign policy toward Myanmar Thursday and also brief Thai officials.
Suu Kyi has welcomed Campbell's visit, seen as part of Obama's diplomatic initiative to engage with Myanmar to encourage democratic reforms.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. Suu Kyi's NLD won a 1990 general election by a landslide but has been denied power by the military.
The international community was not expected to accept the outcome of next year's election unless Suu Kyi and other political prisoners are freed and the NLD is allowed to contest the polls.
