Japan yesterday announced a development aid and loan package for Myanmar worth hundreds of millions of dollars as it boosts trade ties with the fast-changing nation seen as a key regional emerging market.

The military that ran Myanmar for decades will continue to play a major role in the country, according to the former general who has presided over the transformation of a nation that only three years ago was considered one of the world's most repressive.

Myanmar President Thein Sein's landmark state visit to the United States could be delayed because of a cyclone threatening to strike his country's northwest coast.

A summit between President Xi Jinping and his Myanmese counterpart, Thein Sein, signalled both nations' desire to revive their strategic partnership, which had cooled since the civilian government came to power, according to a Chinese expert on the Southeast Asian nation.

President Xi Jinping welcomes leaders from two of Southeast Asian neighbours for talks in Beijing. Myanmar's President Thein Sein and Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Brunei's prime minister, are both due in the capital.

Myanmar’s government met Kachin rebels for renewed peace talks in China on Monday, an analyst said, as the rivals seek to resolve a festering ethnic conflict that has undermined reforms.

Stronger ties with the United States, which is keen to increase its political influence in Asia, should not be considered a challenge to Myanmar’s long-time relationship with China, democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said.

Myanmar's president said he wanted peace talks with all ethnic rebel groups in the country, but government troops again attacked rebel positions in Kachin state in the northeast despite his order to cease fire, rebels and a local source said. President Thein Sein had issued the ceasefire order on Friday to troops in the La Ja Yang area of Kachin near the border with China, where fighting has been fierce.

Myanmar's president has voiced rare public criticism of his government, saying rampant corruption, bribery and inefficiency were getting in the way of the country's much-touted reform process.