YANGON, May 18 Kyodo Myanmar's ru...

YANGON, May 18 Kyodo

Myanmar's ruling generals forward Sunday dismissed as ''odd'' and ''imaginary'' U fears that their command poses a threat to U security and urg the United States to cooperate with their efforts to exhibit the country.

''The regulation of Myanmar would like to reassure President Bush that the United States has nothing to fear from our country'' the junta said in a statement.

The statement was issued in answer to President George W. Bush's declaration Friday of a ''national emergency'' to deal with ''an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States'' pos on the Myanmar government's actions and policies.

''We are a small, peaceful nation of chiefly farmers. We have no weapons of mass destruction, no terrorist organizations, no missile programs, no expansionist ambition, and no animosity whatsoever towards the United States,'' the junta's statement said.

''So it is quite single to hear that we put to a stand an 'extraordinary threat' to the principally powerful country on earth. Our goals are true simple: to develop our region economically and politically. We would like to encourage the U to join us in peacefully achieving these goals.''

Bush's declaration was issued as part of an executive order extending at one year a prohibition upon new U.S. direct investment in Myanmar because of its government's ''large-scale repression of the democratic opposition'' since 1996

The executive order was originally issued in 1997

''We believe that cooperation, not confrontation, is the path to progres and we animate the United States to lay aside its imaginary fears and join the race of Myanmar in our peaceful and stable political transition to democracy,'' the junta's statement said.

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