David Cameron's offer to Burma leader to boost reforms David Cameron walks past a guard of honour in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The next stop on his Far East visit is Burma. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images AsiaPac David Cameron will pave the way for the European Union to ease sanctions on Burma later this month, when he offers incentives to the regime on Friday as a reward for introducing political reforms. Cameron, who will also meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the lakeside home in Rangoon where she was held under house arrest for 15 years, will tell President Thein Sein that Britain is prepared to provide support for Burma's peace and reconciliation process. Experts involved in the Northern Ireland peace process will help advise different groups on holding substantive dialogue with the aim of securing ceasefires. Britain will also offer support for better and stronger governance by training officials on sound public financial management, on the rule of law and strengthening parliamentary democracy, involving a parliamentary exchange programme. In the first visit to Burma by a sitting British prime minister since the country's independence from Britain in 1948, Cameron will outline an assistance plan to encourage Thein Sein to maintain the momentum of change. He believes the president needs to be rewarded after he faced down conservatives in the regime to allow Aung San Suu Kyi to contest recent parliamentary byelections. The Nobel laureate's National League for Democracy secured a landslide victory, picking up 43 of the 44 seats it contested. Cameron will tell Thein Sein the package of measures can only be introduced if the EU relaxes its sanctions. Britain, which has resisted calls within the EU to relax sanctions, is now planning to argue in favour of an immediate change when foreign ministers meet in Brussels on 23 April, barring an unlikely diplomatic disaster in Burma. Downing Street believes Cameron's visit, the first by a western leader since West German president Richard von Weizsäcker in 1986, will mark a high point for the prime minister on the world stage. Aides are keen to bolster the image of the prime minister, who is under fire at home for a series of measures in the budget that have backfired, notably the "granny" and "pasty" taxes - affecting pensions and hot food - and a row over a cap on philanthropic donations. The concerns are highlighted in a critical article in Friday's Guardian by Tim Montgomerie, the influential founding editor of the ConservativeHome website. Montgomerie warns of "chaos inside the Downing Street operation." He writes: "How many strategic errors does the Conservative party have to make before even a Labour party led by the likes of Ed Miliband seems electable to the British people? I ask because the current Tory leadership seems to be playing the electoral equivalent of Go for Broke, the board game where you race to lose a million pounds and the winner is the one who becomes penniless first. Britain, until recently, led demands for sanctions to remain in place. Britain is now expected to argue at the foreign affairs council in Brussels that the EU's outright ban on non-humanitarian development assistance to Burma should be lifted in stages. The sanctions must be renewed by unanimous agreement. Britain will be looking to lift some altogether and to suspend others. The arms embargo will not be altered. One government source said: "It is about striking the right balance. The prime minister will want to see President Thein Sein and he will want to see Aung San Suu Kyi and talk to both of them. If you look at the EU sanctions approach, and our whole approach to sanctions, it is carrot and stick. Therefore we will want that decision on 23 April to be right balance that recognises the great progress that has been made ... versus not taking our foot too much of the pedal - that this could move backwards. Cameron's visit takes place on the day of the Burmese water festival of Thingyan. Speaking in Malaysia on Thursday he expressed the hope that recent political reforms will be irreversible. "What I see happening in Burma is a potential flowering of freedom and democracy and I think that from everything I've seen - although I will see for myself tomorrow - it seems as if the president of Burma is intent on taking a new path and wants to see a progressive flourishing of freedom and democracy," he told students at the Kuala Lumpur campus of Nottingham University. Cameron appeared alongside the Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, who pressed for the lifting of sanctions imposed by the Association of South East Asian Nations after visiting Burma. But No 10 also wants to send a warm signal to the president.