UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday praised the government of Myanmar for its democratic reforms and said he planned to visit the Southeast Asian nation soon.
"I am very pleased and encouraged by what the current Myanmar authorities led by President Thein Sein has been leading, including the releasing of political prisoners," Ban told reporters in New York.
"I have been engaging in direct talks with the leaders of Myanmar," he said. "I am also planning to visit in the near future Myanmar to have further discussions with the Myanmar authorities."
Ban's announcement that he intends to make a third trip to the former Burma - he last went there in 2009 - comes after a visit last month by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks at a press conference during the World Future Energy Summit at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre January 16, 2012. Reuters/Jumana El Heloueh
Earlier this month Clinton announced that Washington would return an ambassador to Myanmar, a country rich in natural resources, after an absence of two decades, a significant step in Washington's quickening but still tentative re-engagement with the country.
Myanmar's reforms have included freeing from detention pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, launching peace talks with ethnic rebels, relaxing media censorship, lifting bans on trade unions and protests, and pulling back from the economic and political orbit of neighboring China.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, Myanmar's biggest opposition force, won a 1990 election by a landslide but the country's military refused to cede power and, for the following two decades, suppressed the party's activities, putting many of its members in prison.
Despite the transition to civilian rule, Myanmar's generals still effectively control parliament after a deeply flawed 2010 election and the constitution, written in 2008, guarantees the military's dominant role in politics.
Separately, Ban also announced that he had appointed his chief-of-staff, Vijay Nambiar of India, as his special envoy to Myanmar.
