France calls on EU to relax Burma sanctions

France will urge European Union partners to relax sanctions against Burma after elections won by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party.

French foreign minister Alain Juppé said yesterday: “we have to make a gesture” to support historic reforms in the country.

He said that France was ready “to propose to our partners in Brussels ... an initial lightening of sanctions.”

The EU has in place an arms embargo and a ban on the sale of goods linked to internal repression. It also has suspended certain development aid programs.

US sanctions remain in place, though the Obama administration said yesterday that it would soon appoint an ambassador to Myanmar and ease some travel and financial restrictions. China urged Western countries to immediately lift sanctions .

A spokesman for the country’s foreign ministry said the elections would be good for Burma’s stability and development.

China has been one of Myanmar’s biggest international backers and has poured billions of dollars of investment into the country to operate mines, extract timber and build oil and gas pipelines.

However, relations between the two countries appear to have cooled recently.