Catherine Ashton (r) is the latest in a series of
high-profile officials to visit Burma
The European Union foreign policy chief has meet Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Catherine Ashton, who is in the country to show the EU's
support for recent political reforms, said she would open a new,
embassy-level office in Rangoon.
Ms Ashton will also hold talks with ministers of the military-backed government.
Earlier this week the EU suspended sanctions against Burma for a year in recognition of "historic changes".
'Irreversible process'
"This is a process of change," Ms Ashton said during a joint
press conference with Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon, according to Agence
France Presse.
"I hope we will see all the elements put in place so this
will become an irreversible process that will only continue," she added.
The EU's role in the country will be to offer investment and expertise, particularly in remote rural areas.
Diplomats have said that the new office in Rangoon will
mostly oversee the management of aid programmes but will also have a
political role.
It will be the EU's first step towards a full delegation in the country.
'Investment opportunities'
The BBC's South East Asia correspondent, Rachel Harvey, in
Rangoon, says that on the part of EU member states there is both a
political desire and a practical interest to get more aid into the
country.
She adds that Ms Ashton's visit is the latest in a stream of
high-level diplomatic meetings that reveal a rapidly escalating process
of international engagement between Burma and the rest of the world.
There is, our correspondent explains, a growing determination
among foreign governments to try to keep this country on the right
track and to seek to reap the potential investment opportunities that
might follow.
Ahead of the visit, Lady Ashton said that the EU welcomed
what it called the "remarkable changes" in the country and said it
marked "a new chapter in our relations".
Later during her trip, she is due to the country's remote
capital, Naypyitaw, to meet President Thein Sein, the speaker of the
lower house Thura Shwe Mann and Railways Minister Aung Min.
An EU embargo on arms sales remains in place and the bloc has
said that it still expects the unconditional release of remaining
political prisoners and the removal of all restrictions placed on those
already released.
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