US President Barack Obama headed to Myanmar on Monday for a historic
visit aimed at encouraging a string of dramatic political reforms in the
former pariah state.
Obama will be the first serving US president to set foot in the country also known as Burma, in the starkest illustration yet of its emergence from a long period of isolation and repression.
He is expected to praise President Thein Sein for ending a dark era of junta rule and for welcoming opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi into mainstream politics, but also to prod the former general to go much further towards genuine democracy.
Obama will use a major speech at Yangon University to hail "the flickers of progress" in Myanmar, the White House said.
"Today, I have come to keep my promise, and extend the hand of friendship," Obama will say, according to excerpts of his address. "But this remarkable journey has just begun, and has much further to go."