David Cameron's messages for Burma and the world follow historic meetings Cameron's talks with Aung San Suu Kyi took place in the house where she was held under arrest for 15 years. David Cameron became the first sitting British prime minister to visit Burma since independence in 1948, in a day that took him from the grand surrounds of the presidential palace to an emotional meeting with the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. In the old colonial capital of Rangoon, the normally confident Cameron appeared a little starstruck as he became the first western leader to meet Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma. Their talks took place in a cramped room in the house where Aung San Suu Kyi was held under arrest for 15 years. A few hours earlier the prime minister had met President Thein Sein in the gaudy presidential palace in the soulless Burmese capital of Naypyidaw, 250 miles to the north of Rangoon. The meeting - held in a grand marble hall that could accommodate a tennis court or two - was cordial, if slightly stilted, as Cameron acknowledged the president's role in pushing political reforms in Burma. But Cameron had a clear warning: if the reforms are halted or reversed the country will once again find itself isolated on the world stage. The prime minister decided to tack on a visit to Burma to the end of his long- planned tour of Japan and south-east Asia after the success of the parliamentary by-elections on 1 April. Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won 43 of the 44 seats it contested in a landslide victory. Cameron wanted to send a series of messages to Burma and other world powers about the rapid progress in the past few months as well as acknowledging the courage of Aung San Suu Kyi, who left her half-British family in Oxford in 1988 to champion democracy in Burma. By visiting her at her lakeside family home he wanted to tell sceptical countries such as Germany, which regard her as an icon but not a heavyweight political leader, that she is a force to be reckoned with. In strolling around Aung San Suu Kyi's lovingly tended garden in front of the cameras the prime minister was delivering a message to the regime: she has a hold on the international community that will balk if there is any rowing backwards on the reforms. When the prime minister appeared with Aung San Suu Kyi on the terrace of her grand - if slightly down at heel - house he made two announcements carefully calibrated to put substance to Britain's messages. In the first place Cameron said Britain would argue in favour of suspending all EU sanctions on Burma, except the arms embargo. At a more human level, he invited Aung San Suu Kyi to return to her "beloved Oxford" in June for the first time since she left the city in 1988. The prime minister said of the suspension of sanctions, likely to be approved by EU foreign ministers on 23 April: "If we really want to see the chance of greater freedom and democracy in Burma we should respond when they take action. If they keep moving the ship of economic reform forward and the ship of political reform forward then we should be prepared to respond. Aung San Suu Kyi welcomed Britain's decision. I support the idea of the suspension, rather than the lifting of sanctions, because this will be an acknowledgment of the role of the president and other reformers. It will also make it quite clear to those who are against reform that, should they try to obstruct the way of the reformers, then sanctions could come back. Cameron is inviting her to visit Britain to allow her to visit her sons and grandchildren she has barely seen. Her husband, Michael Aris, died of prostate cancer in England in 1999. But there is also a political calculation: if the Burmese regime were to maintain its travel policy it would fail an early test of credibility. Cameron said: "For many years Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed, if she wanted to, to leave this country. You wrote that they would roll out the red carpet all the way to the aeroplane and put you on to it, but never let you return ... That [a visit to Britain] is a sign, if we are able to do this, of huge progress that you will be able to leave your country and return to your country as a member of parliament. Aung San Suu Kyi said she hoped to accept the invitation. Two years ago I would have said thank you for the invitation but sorry. Now I am able to say perhaps and that is great progress. The meeting of minds on sanctions and a visit to Britain shows the prime minister is making sure he moves at a pace she will find comfortable. This means that other EU leaders, who have been calling for a more dramatic scaling back of sanctions, are likely to adopt the position agreed by Cameron and Aung San Suu Kyi. The discussions at her house took place with a thud thud of dance music in the background as the Burmese celebrated their new year with the water festival of Thingyan. Cameron's motorcade was sprayed with water as it moved around Rangoon and Naypyidaw. But the two cities are a world apart. Rangoon is a teeming city with people piled high on trucks. Naypyidaw, where a 20-lane highway leads to the presidential palace, is deserted by comparison. The city, built from scratch in 2005, is meant to symbolise a modern nation championed by the junta. Instead its deserted highways have the feel of a lost civilisation. Aung San Suu Kyi does not regard the junta as enemies, as she made clear when she was asked whether she was following in the footsteps of her father, Aung San, Burma's national hero who played a key role in securing independence from Britain. Asked whether she was "parleying with the enemy," as her father did, she said: "I believe in progress. My father parleyed with the enemy. I would like to think I am parleying with people who are no longer my enemies. That would be progress.