Yangon - US Senator Jim Webb expressed gratitude Sunday to Myanmar's junta chief for honouring his request to free an American national who swam to the house-cum-prison of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on May 3, providing a pretext for both to be jailed.

Webb held talks with Myanmar's military leader Senior General Than Shwe on Saturday during which he requested the release of John William Yettaw, 54, sentenced to seven years in jail for swimming to Suu Kyi's family compound in Yangon.

Yettaw was scheduled to accompany Webb on his privately chartered plane out of Yangon on Sunday afternoon to Bangkok, sources confirmed.

The US senator, a Democrat from Virginia who is chairman of the US Senate's East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, also requested that Than Shwe release Suu Kyi, whom he met Saturday, but did appear to have secured her freedom.

"I am grateful to the Myanmar government for honouring these requests," said Webb, in a statement released on his personal website. "It is my hope that we can take advantage of these gestures as a way to begin laying a foundation of goodwill and confidence- building in the future."

Webb's breakthrough in Myanmar sparked immediate criticism from Myanmar pro-democracy activists.

"This will surely make a negative impression among the people of Burma," said Aung Din, who heads the US campaign for Democracy. "They will think that Americans are easy to satisfy with the dictators when they get their citizens back."

Myanmar's military used Yettaw's uninvited visit to Suu Kyi's lakeside residence, which has served as her private prison for 14 of the past 20 years, to press charges against her and her two house- helpers of violating the terms of her detention.

A Myanmar court last week sentenced Suu Kyi and her aides to three years in prison, which was commuted to 18 months back under house detention by Than Shwe.

"I don't think Senator Webb can be proud for the release of John Yettaw, while our leader Daw (Madame) Aung San Suu Kyi, who is the real victim of this conspiracy and injustices and two women colleagues are still under detention," Aung Din said.

Than Shwe's amnesty for Yettaw was not unprecedented. In 1999, 18 US college students travelled to Yangon where they staged a pro- democracy protest, urging the people to revolt against the military regime that has ruled the Southeast nation with an iron fist since
1962.

The so-called "Rangoon 18" were arrested, sentenced to jail and then immediately deported.

Webb is a proponent of change in US foreign policy towards Myanmar, a pariah state among Western democracies that has been condemned for its poor human rights record and has been subject to economic sanctions for two decades.

Webb's trip to Myanmar is part of a five-nation tour of Southeast Asia that is also to include stopovers in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. (dpa)