Hope for Burmese opposition

Laos has a strong security presence for the summit

The Burmese junta has reportedly said it is ready to lift restrictions on opposition leaders.

The breakthrough came at the first meeting of European and south-east Asian ministers in three years.

Suu Kyi is under virtual house arrest

French Co-operation Minister Charles Josselin said: "The Burmese explained to us that they have already lifted restrictions on some opposition leaders and are ready to lift restrictions against some others."

Mr Josselin told AFP news agency he understood this to include the Nobel Peace prize winner Aung Sung Suu Kyi who has been effectively under house arrest since September.

Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party (NLD) won the general elections in 1990, but Burma's military rulers refused to hand over power.

The ministers are meeting in Laos' National Culture Hall

Mr Josselin said the Burmese delegation made its undertaking during the meeting of the Association of South-East Asian Nations and European Union ministers in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

The two sides have not sat down together for three years because of their differences over human rights in Burma which joined Asean in 1997.

'No problem'

European delegates are trying to secure an agreement from Burma to allow an EU fact-finding mission to visit the country in January.

Asean members

Brunei

Cambodia

Indonesia

Laos

Malaysia

Myanmar

Philippines

Singapore

Thailand

Vietnam

They want the mission to be allowed to meet opposition leaders such as Aung San Suu Kyi, minority groups and aid workers.

EU ministers are demanding all restrictions on NLD leaders be lifted.

But Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung told reporters in Vientiane there was no problem with human rights in his country.

"We don't have violations of human rights ... I can simply tell the [ministers] what's happening in our country and I am not afraid to face this sort of criticism," Win Aung added.

Asean countries have a policy of non-interference in member countries' domestic affairs.

But European ministers said they had no intention of backing down on the human rights issue.

"Human rights everywhere in the world is the rights of people not of states," said Dutch minister of state Hans Van Mierlo.

Slighted

The other main issue at Monday's talks was the level of representation.

The 10 Asean countries, who all sent their foreign ministers, were upset that the European countries had only despatched junior ministers and bureaucrats.

European delegates said this was because their foreign ministers were tied up with the extended EU summit in Nice, France.