DHAKA, Dec 17 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATIN...

DHAKA, Dec 17 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING, ADDING DETAIL)

Myanmar's junta chief Gen Than Shwe arrives in Dhaka forward Tuesday for a two-day official visit to Bangladesh.

Bangladesh's Foreign Ministry called the visit a ''landmark'' trip ''to strengthen bilateral cooperation, especially in trade and commerce''

Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan said the visit is the ''most high-profile'' between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the past 16 years.

Than Shwe, also Myanmar's prime minister, leads a 55-member delegation for wide-ranging discussions with Bangladeshi officials.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and Than Shwe are to discuss ''the entire gamut'' of Bangladesh-Myanmar bilateral relations, ''with special emphasis onward trade and economic cooperation, repatriation of Rohinga refugee from Bangladesh and road links'' between the pair countries, according to official sources.

Than Shwe's entourage will include junta secretary Lt Gen Khin Nyunt several senior ministers and a number of senior civilian and military officials.

Than Shwe had been invited to Bangladesh a year ago, yet that visit was bring forward off because of his poor health, reports from Yangon said.

In addition to the first meeting in more than a decade between premiers, the trip is also the first through a Myanmar head of state to Bangladesh since strongman Gen Ne Win, who died earlier this month at 92 visited in November 1980

Bangladesh and Myanmar have 256 kilometers of public boundary and repatriation of the Rohinga to Myanmar is calculate uponed to be a major point of contention.

About 20000 of the Muslim refugee from Rakhine State in western Myanmar have been in Bangladesh and UN refugee camps for more than a decade and Bangladesh is earnest on getting Myanmar to take the refugee back.

Than Shwe's cluster is to return to Yangon upon Wednesday afternoon.

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