Clinton flew into a little-used airport in Naypyidaw, the remote city where Myanmar's generals abruptly moved their capital in 2005, in a stark test of US
efforts to engage the strategic but long-isolated country.
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has surprised observers with a series of reformist moves in the past year, including releasing opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and nominally ending decades of military rule.
President Barack Obama personally announced Clinton's trip during a visit to Asia earlier this month, citing "flickers" of hope. But his administration has sought to keep expectations low, mindful of other false dawns in Myanmar.
During a stop in South Korea for an aid conference, Clinton said the United States and other nations hoped that the flickers "will be ignited into a movement for change that will benefit the people of the country".
The top US diplomat told reporters that she would look to "determine for myself what is the intention of the current government with respect to continuing reforms, both political and economic".
Clinton has said she will insist that Myanmar free all political prisoners - activists' estimates vary between 500 and more than 1,600 - and move to end long-running ethnic conflicts that have displaced thousands of people.
Senior administration officials said Clinton would not announce an end to sweeping economic sanctions on Myanmar, a step that would require approval by Congress. But top US diplomats rarely undertake such high-profile visits without being ready to offer some incentives for further action.
On Thursday, Clinton will meet President Thein Sein, a former general now at the vanguard of reforms, before flying later to the main city Yangon for talks with Suu Kyi, whose views hold great sway in Washington.
A senior State Department official travelling with Clinton who asked not to be named said he expected Myanmar would move forward on one key US concern - allegations of past military cooperation with nuclear-armed North Korea.
The official said he was not convinced of defectors' accounts of nuclear cooperation between the countries but indicated that Myanmar may agree to sign an agreement with the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure that it is not pursuing atomic weapons.
"We've looked at this fairly carefully and we do not see signs of a substantial effort at this time" on nuclear weapons, he said.
The official said that the United States was more concerned about North Korean exports of missile technology to Myanmar, which violate UN sanctions on Pyongyang. In May, a US Navy destroyer intercepted a North Korean cargo ship in the South China Sea suspected of carrying missile parts to Myanmar.
The Obama administration opened dialogue with Myanmar in 2009, saying that the previous US approach had failed with a country branded by former president George W. Bush's team as an "outpost of tyranny."
The official was blunt about US caution over Myanmar, saying that the Obama administration's engagement policy had been "an abysmal failure" until recently.
He acknowledged that the United States was largely still in the dark about Myanmar's internal politics but suspected Thein Sein may have become convinced of the need for reforms after travelling overseas in a previous stint as prime minister.
China has been the primary supporter of the junta and the military-dominated civilian government that succeeded it after controversial elections last year, but many ordinary citizens are resentful of Beijing's large economic presence.
Ahead of Clinton's trip, Myanmar's military chief visited Beijing to reaffirm friendly relations, although Thein Sein stunned observers recently when he bowed to public opposition and stopped a dam that would benefit China.
China's state-run Global Times newspaper warned Wednesday that Beijing would not allow its interests in Myanmar to be "stamped on".
Myanmar once supplied food across Asia and until World War II the country enjoyed some of the continent's highest standards in literacy and health.
But the country now languishes near the bottom of global rankings of human development.
The only other US secretary of state to visit Myanmar was John Foster Dulles in 1955.
- AFP/fa
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