WASHINGTON, March 26: The United States on Thursday accused North Korea of seeking to sell surface-to-surface missiles to Myanmar's military government.

Matthew Daley, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, told a congressional panel the United States had raised its "concerns" with Myanmar over such moves.

"We have reason to believe that the DPRK has offered surface-to-surface missiles" to Myanmar, Mr Daley said. "We have raised this issue of possible missile transfers with senior Burmese officials and registered our concerns in unambiguous language," he told US lawmakers.

"Although Burmese officials have indicated that they have not accepted offers of such weapons systems, we will continue to monitor the situation and will deal with it vigorously and rapidly."

North Korea and the junta in Yangon already have what Daley called "a military and trade" relationship. Mr Daley said Washington was also aware "that the Burmese regime is interested in acquiring a nuclear research reactor." But he said news reports of "construction activities are not well founded." -AFP