Myanmar won't succeed if Muslims are oppressed : Obama

The White House: US President Barack Obama has warned that ethnic and religious conflicts could move Myanmar in a "very bad direction".

Mr Obama praised the "courageous process" of political reform taking place in a country formerly led by a military junta, but warned that democratisation after years of repression brought its own perils.

"Myanmar won't succeed if the Muslim population is oppressed," Mr Obama said at a "town hall" meeting during a visit to Muslim-majority Malaysia, his third stop of his Asian tour.

Mr Obama was referring to Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority which has been subject to persecution at the hands of Buddhist nationalists, particularly in the country's western Rakhine state.