Obama begins landmark Myanmar visit

US President Barack Obama on Monday expressed his support for Myanmar's "first steps" towards democracy after meeting with the country's president on a historic trip to the former pariah state.

Obama met with reform-minded President Thein Sein for about an hour in Yangon, in the first visit to the country by a serving US president.

"I've shared with him the fact that I recognize this is just the first steps on what will be a long journey," Obama said.

"But we think a process of democratic and economic reform here in Myanmar that has been begun by the president is one that can lead to incredible development opportunities."

Thein Sein, a former army general who took up the post of president in March 2011, called on Obama to support "capacity building" within the government while promising to "move the country forward."

Obama was earlier greeted outside Yangon International Airport by students waving Myanmar and US flags.

Thousands of people and riot police lined University Avenue from the airport to Yangon's old Parliament building, where Obama met with President Thein Sein, for whom the visit is an acknowledgment of dramatic progress towards democracy in the past 18 months.

Obama also held meetings with the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, at her home where she was under house arrest until March 2010.

Obama will close with a speech at the University of Yangon, praising the country's progress toward democracy but urge further reforms.

"Instead of being repressed, the right of people to assemble together must now be fully respected,'' the president said in speech excerpts released by the White House.

"Instead of being stifled, the veil of media censorshipmust continue to be lifted. As you take these steps, you can draw on your progress.''

Obama has stressed that his visit is not an unqualified endorsement of the Burmese government.

"I don't think anybody is under any illusion that Burma's arrived, that they're where they need to be," he said in Bangkok on Sunday.

"On the other hand, if we waited to engage until they had achieved a perfect democracy, my suspicion is we'd be waiting an awful long time," he added.

After visiting Burma, Mr Obama will head to Cambodia to join a meeting of the Association of South East Asian Nations, in a trip that underlines the shift in US foreign policy focus to the Asia-Pacific region.