The US Government began a new policy of engagement with the Burmese dictatorship today with the arrival of the most senior Americans to visit the country for more than ten years.

Kurt Campbell, the Assistant Secretary of State responsible for Asia, will meet Burma’s Prime Minister, Thein Sein, and the detained democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, in a two day visit that brings to an end an official policy of isolating the junta.

Mr Campbell, who is accompanied by his deputy, Scott Marciel, has emphasised that the new policy does not mean the immediate lifting of the array of sanctions against Burma, which has been under continuous military rule since 1962. But it is an acknowledgement of the failure of past efforts to persuade the junta to improve human rights, allow democratic elections and release the country’s 2,100 political prisoners, including Ms Suu Kyi.

“Mr Campbell's visit is the beginning of a new US engagement policy toward Myanmar,” said Nyan Win, spokesman for Ms Suu Kyi’s political party, the National League for Democracy, which has cautiously welcomed the change of direction. “This is the first step of the engagement but we have to see what comes out of the new policy.”

The first contacts between the two Governments are likely to be tentative and no significant breakthrough is expected from this week’s visit. Mr Campbell arrived in the administrative capital, Naypyidaw, and will travel today to the largest city, Rangoon, where he will meet senior NLD leaders as well as Ms Suu Kyi who has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention. In August her house arrest was extended for 18 months because of a visit to her Rangoon home by an eccentric American who swam across a lake to visit her uninvited.

Mr Campbell is not expected to meet the “Senior General” Than Shwe, head of the State Peace and Development Council, without whose authority no major policy change is likely.

Apart from the release of political prisoners, Mr Campbell will press the junta on its plans to hold an election next year which have been denounced by Burmese opposition figures and Western governments as a means of perpetuating ongoing military rule behind a faced of democracy.

Among the people he met last night were representatives of the Union Solidarity and Development Association, a grass roots organisation of pro-junta enforcers who frequently harass and attack those suspected of anti-government sentiments. It is expected that the USDA will form itself in to a political party for next year’s election.

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