EU to ease sanctions on Myanmar

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BRUSSELS, April 19 (UPI) -- Responding to acceleration of internal political reforms in Myanmar, the European Union will suspend most of its economic sanctions on the Asian country.

The decisions are expected to be announced at an EU meeting in Luxembourg Monday, senior European diplomats said Thursday.

The suspension will end, for a year, a travel ban, a freezing of some assets, a ban on some development aid and a ban on investment in Myanmar's logging, timer processing and mining industries, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

An embargo on arms and on the sale of "materials for internal repression" will remain in place, diplomats said.

The move comes after Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, held by-elections earlier in April. The vote was overwhelmingly won by opposition leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party and led to the release of many political prisoners.