Yangon  - Myanmar and Laos strengthened relations with the signing of visa-exemption treaty for their respective citizens and a double-taxation avoidance agreement, state media reported Saturday.

The two agreements were signed Friday in the military's capital of Naypyitaw, 350 kilometres north of the old capital Yangon, The New Light of Myanmar reported.

Myanmar Prime Minister General Thein Sein received the visiting delegation led by Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith.

Myanmar and Laos, both members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations, are ranked among the world's poorest countries.

While Myanmar, also called Burma, has been under military rule since 1962, landlocked Laos has been under a communist regime since 1975, and remains a one-party state. (dpa)