Burma and Bangladesh have signed several important agreements at the end of General Than Shwe's two-day visit to Bangladesh on Wednesday.

We look forward to working closely with Bangladesh in the years ahead General Than Shwe

The two neighbouring countries agreed to establish a joint trade commission and improve their currently modest shipping links.

More generally, they pledged to boost bilateral ties to overcome the economic challenges both countries face.

At the end of his visit, General Than Shwe was given a red-carpet farewell including an honour guard, by the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, at Dhaka airport.

General Than Shwe is the first Burmese leader to visit Bangladesh in 16 years.

Commercial focus

Correspondents say the strains that have marred bilateral relations until now appear to have waned during the visit.

Bilateral ties were boosted during the visit

General Than Shwe said globalisation posed "daunting challenges" for developing countries and they needed to co-operate to overcome these.

"We look forward to working closely with Bangladesh in the bilateral context as well as in the framework of Bimstec in the years ahead," he said.

Bimstec is an economic forum comprising Bangladesh, India, Myanmar (Burma), Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The Bangladeshi Commerce Minister AKM Chowdhury said bilateral trade would increase substantially over the next few months, helping both countries to earn much-needed foreign revenue.

He said Bangladesh was eager to export more jute goods to Burma and that Rangoon in turn wanted to supply wood and vegetable produce to Dhaka.

Reluctant refugees

Mr Chowdhury said he would now meet regularly with his Burmese counterpart to review cross-border trade.

But the issue that has divided them for the past decade - the Rohingya refugee question - still remains unanswered.

Aid agencies say that although Burma has unofficially offered to allow 5,000 to return to the province of Arakan, the refugees themselves are unwilling to go.

They argue that they will be made to carry out forced labour if they go back to their homeland.