Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met Thursday with Myanmar's junta chief and witnessed the signing of 15 cooperation agreements with the pariah state, according to dpa. Wen met with junta head Senior General Than Shwe in Naypyitaw, Myanmar's military capital, for private talks, officials said. China has in the past expressed concerns about Myanmar's ability to hold a general election some time this year - the first polls in two decades. Beijing is worried that the junta's condition that all ethnic minority armed groups must transform themselves into government militias prior to the polls, a requirement that could lead to fighting in Myanmar's northern states that border China. A Myanmar military attack on the Kokang armed force last year led to thousands of refugees fleeing into Yunnan province. Besides meeting with Than Shwe, Wen also held talks with his Myanmar counterpart Thein Sein. The two premiers witnessed the signing of 15 bilateral economic agreements on a natural gas pipeline, hydropower, grant aid, rail transport, border trade and mining. Wen arrived in Yangon on Wednesday, making him the first Chinese premier to visit Myanmar in 16 years. He was scheduled to depart Thursday. Meanwhile, Myanmar government officials confirmed that US Senator Jim Webb was scheduled to arrive in Naypyitaw Thursday evening. "The senator is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Thein Sein on Friday and with [opposition leader] Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday," a government official said. "But he will not be meeting with Than Shwe." Webb was last in Myanmar in August when he met with Than Shwe who agreed to free US national John William Yettaw, 53, who had been sentenced to seven years in jail for swimming to the home-cum-prison of Aung San Suu Kyi. Webb, a Democrat from Virginia who is chairman of the US Senate's East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, was in Thailand Thursday to discuss the recent unrest there.
