The United States will begin its engagement with Myanmar after a decade-long freeze next week by sending a top diplomat to Yangon, but said it will actively consult India along with China on its new strategy.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell will head to Myanmar as Washington warns that the reconciliation efforts would be “slow and painful”.

His visit will mark the highest level US contact with the military regime in last ten years.

On his way to Yangon, Campbell is planning a stop-over in India to discuss with its leaders the objectives of the Obama administration’s new Burma policy.

The US diplomat was in Beijing last week and met senior Chinese officials who focus on Burma.

“I think it would be fair to say to characterise those discussions first by saying that the Chinese are intensely interested in our proposed dialogues. They see that the US is stepping up its overall engagement in Southeast Asia. They are watching that carefully,” he said during a hearing on Burma by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

“I asked specifically for Chinese assistance particularly in terms of establishing a dialogue with internal parties in advance of the 2010 elections, and I asked for China’s overall support for the US policy of engagement,” he said.

“We intend to go to Burma in the coming weeks for a fact-finding mission,” Campbell said in his testimony before the House Foreign Affairs committee.