US OFFICIALS TO MEET SUU KYI

Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, the top US diplomat for East Asia, and his deputy, Scot Marciel, are the highest-level Americans to visit Burma since 1995.

Their trip stems from a new US policy that reverses the George W Bush administration's isolation of the nation in favour of direct, high-level talks with a country that has been ruled by the military since 1962.

Their two-day visit is the second step in "the beginning of a dialogue with Burma", according to the US.

They have already met with senior junta officials.

Mr Campbell is continuing talks he began in September in New York, which at the time were the first such high-level contact in nearly a decade.

The meetings have included a session with Prime Minister General Thein Sein, and then Ms Suu Kyi - the 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years, mostly under house arrest.

The hotel meeting is Ms Suu Kyi's first trip in years outside the confines of her home or Insein Prison.

She was recently sentenced to an additional 18 months of house arrest for briefly sheltering an uninvited American, in a trial that drew global condemnation. That sentence means she will not be able to participate in next year's elections.