YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar said on Wednesday that it was "ready to provide humanitarian assistance" to boatpeople, in its most conciliatory comments yet as several Southeast Asian neighbours meet to discuss the migrant crisis gripping the region.

A foreign ministry statement in the state media said Myanmar "shares concerns" of the international community and is "ready to provide humanitarian assistance to anyone who suffered in the sea".

The United Nations warned that thousands of migrants - including from the persecuted Rohingya minority - were stranded off its coast.