The US has agreed to send Hillary Clinton to visit Burma next month, reports say.

报道称，美国同意派遣希拉里·克林顿下个月出访缅甸。

US officials told reporters that President Barack Obama would formally announce the visit later.

Mrs Clinton will be the first secretary of state to visit in 50 years.

Burma was ruled by a brutal¹ junta²（团体，派别） for decades, but the generals ceded³（放弃，割让） power last year and the new government has undertaken important reforms.

Crucially, President Thein Sein has held a number of meetings with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was previously⁴ held under house arrest.

The president has also reformed election laws, and Ms Suu Kyi's political movement, which boycotted⁵（联合抵制） elections last year, is now expected to officially register as a party and contest by-elections.

The US announcement comes a day after leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) agreed that Burma could chair the regional bloc⁶ in 2014.