WASHINGTON - THE United States said on Monday it would no longer allow its row with Myanmar to hold its ties with Southeast Asia hostage, as President Barack Obama geared up for his debut official visit to the region.

Mr Obama is due to hold the first-ever meeting between a US president and leaders of all 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) members, including Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein, on Sunday in Singapore.

'One of the frustrations that we've had with policy toward Burma over recent years has been that the inability to have interaction with Burma has prevented certain kinds of interaction with Asean as a whole,' said Mr Obama's top Asia policy aide Jeffrey Bader. 'The statement we're trying to make here is that we're not going to let the Burmese tail wag the Asean dog.'

Mr Bader said the meeting was a multilateral session, and not intended to serve as an opportunity for Obama to have a conversation with a Myanmar leader - though did not categorically rule out such an encounter.

In previous years, hopes for a US- Asean leaders' summit have foundered on Washington's refusal to sit down with members of Myanmar's junta because of their suppression of Aung San Suu Kyi's democracy movement.

Myanmar, or Burma, has been a constant impediment to US-Asean ties, but the US administration last week sent senior officials to the military-ruled state in a bid to promote a new dialogue after years of shunning the junta. The Obama administration reasons that the policy of isolating Myanmar has failed for 20 years, so it is time to try a new approach. -- AFP.