Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama pressed Myanmar on Saturday to release the country's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi before it holds general elections next year.
In talks with the Japanese leader in Tokyo, Myanmar Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein said that "any party, any person will be able to take part" in the elections in accordance with a law that has yet to be announced, according to a Japanese official.
Hatoyama said that if Myanmar holds democratic elections in ways Japan hopes to see, Tokyo will then be able to strengthen various forms of assistance to the country.
The bilateral talks were held on the sidelines of the two-day first summit meeting between Japan, Myanmar and four other Mekong-region countries -- Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
"It's extremely important Ms. Suu Kyi and other political prisoners be set free by the time the general elections are held in 2010," the Japanese prime minister was quoted as saying.
Hatoyama said at the same time that given the recent progress being made, including the resumption of dialogue between the military government and the Nobel Peace laureate and the improvement in its ties with Washington, Japan will expand, in phases, humanitarian and human resources assistance to Myanmar.
Japan's economic assistance to the country has so far been limited, with 2 billion yen level aid given annually, the official said.
The talks between Hatoyama and Thein Sein came several days after U.S. officials made the highest-level visit to Myanmar in 14 years. The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is seeking to engage in dialogue with the military regime, in a reversal of the previous George W. Bush administration's policy of isolating the country.
"We're going about things in a way that would have people whose ideas are different from those of the government take part in the elections," Thein Sein was quoted as saying, adding that his government is making efforts to announce the election law "at an appropriate timing."
"I hope that through the elections in 2010, the (bilateral) relations will develop into the good ones we had in the past," Hatoyama said.
A Myanmar leader last visited Japan in December 2003 on the occasion of the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit Meeting in Tokyo. The last bilateral summit meeting between the two countries took place in Singapore in November 2007, when then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda met with Thein Sein.
Suu Kyi has been detained for 14 of the last 20 years, mostly under house arrest. On Wednesday, Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, met with the pro-democracy leader in Yangon, becoming the highest-ranking U.S. official to do so since 1995, when Madeleine Albright saw her as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
On Saturday, Hatoyama also met bilaterally with Laotian Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Hatoyama conveyed to the Vietnamese leader Tokyo's decision to offer Hanoi 54.9 billion yen in yen-denominated loans to tide it over the global financial crisis.
