Hillary Clinton will become the first US secretary of state in 50 years to visit Burma, it has been announced, as Washington ramped up its efforts to kindle "flickers of progress" in the isolated south-east Asian nation.
The visit next month, announced by Barack Obama, appeared to be a reward for Burma's reforms, which were marked hours earlier by the return to politics of the democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.
The double boost was widely applauded as a sign that Burma may be moving in from the political cold, but it contains risks: a political transformation is far from guaranteed in a government system that is still largely under the influence of the military, and the move may add to China's suspicion that the US is attempting an encirclement policy.