Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak today said Malaysia hoped Burma will undertake democratic reforms ahead of the meeting of Southeast Asian leaders here in December.

"Asean is trying to play a part. We hope there will be positive development later on," he told reporters.

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 takes over the Asean chairmanship in July, before Burma's turn in 2006. Najib said Burma would attend the Asean summit in Malaysia.

"Myanmar (Burma) continues to be a member of Asean. As far as Malaysia is concerned they are in Asean. But what happens internally is another matter," he said.

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.

Source of difficulty

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

Malaysia had 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.