Malaysia intends to expand its trade ties with Burma, Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz said on Monday during a visit to the military-ruled country internationally condemned for human rights abuses.

"Malaysia has always placed importance to the maintenance of a close relationship with Myanmar (Burma) over the years," Rafidah told a business seminar aimed at enhancing trade ties between the countries.

"Malaysian companies are well-placed in terms of expertise and capability to work together with Myanmar companies to identify new opportunities and develop the untapped resources in Myanmar," she said.

Malaysia has been the fourth largest foreign investor in resource-rich Burma over the past seven years, according to the Myanmar Investment Commission.

Total accumulative approved Malaysian investments from 1998 to 2004 were valued at US$660.7 million in 26 projects, it said.

Bilateral trade in 2004 hit 164.81 million dollars, accounting for 5.1 percent of Burma's total trade, Burmese Commerce Minister Brigadier General Tin Naing Thein said.

Political reform

While trying to expand its economic cooperation with Burma, Malaysia has gently pressured the country to undertake political reform.

It warned Burma in December that its pledge to move towards democracy could only be credible if opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi were released from house arrest.

Aung San Suu Kyi, an international icon of democracy and Nobel peace prize winner, has spent various periods in house arrest since 1989. Her latest began in May 2003.

Her National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in elections in 1990 but has never been allowed to take power.

The military junta announced a seven-step roadmap to democracy in 2003 but it has barely got off the ground and been denounced internationally as a sham.

The junta has ignored calls for Aung San Suu Kyi's release, and as a result the United States and European Union last year tightened their sanctions on Burma.

Washington has banned all Burma imports, frozen the regime's assets and barred new US investment inside the country.

Malaysia and Burma are both members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which also includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Malaysia took over the Asean chairmanship this year, before Burma's turn in 2006.

The United States has warned it would boycott meetings of the 10-member grouping if Rangoon failed to improve its human rights record when it assumes the chairmanship.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar has admitted that Burma was a "source of difficulty" for Asean but said the United States had no right to issue threats to Asean.