Southeast Asian Leaders Call for End to Myanmar Sanctions YANGON, Myanmar - Western countries should lift sanctions on Myanmar "immediately" in light of "significant positive developments" in the country, Southeast Asian leaders said in a joint statement on Wednesday. At the close of a summit meeting in Cambodia, leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations declared that last weekend's by-elections in Myanmar were "free, fair and transparent" and said they represented a "significant step towards further democratization." "We called for the lifting of all sanctions on Myanmar immediately in order to contribute positively to the democratic process and economic development in that country," the leaders said in their joint statement. The United States and European Union have imposed multiple layers of trade and investment restrictions during the past decade and a half. Sunday's by-elections, a test of Myanmar's budding democratic reforms, have led to a review of the punitive measures, which were imposed after numerous crackdowns on pro-democracy forces. The European Union will take up the matter later this month. Leaders in the United States Congress, which has purview over the issue of sanctions, have said the treatment of ethnic minorities will also be taken into account when deciding whether to rescind the trade and investment restrictions. Representatives of the Karen ethnic group, who have waged one of the world's longest insurgencies against the central government in Myanmar, restarted negotiations on a cease-fire on Wednesday, part of a recently launched effort by the government reach out to the country's many minority groups. An initial cease-fire agreement signed in January between the government and one faction of the Karen National Union was disputed by some of the group's leaders. The current round of talks are scheduled to extend into next week. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has long opposed sanctions against Myanmar but Wednesday's call for their immediate removal was more emphatic than previous statements from the group. State media in Myanmar on Wednesday published the final list of winners in Sunday's election. The opposition party led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi won 43 seats in Parliament, while the ruling party and a smaller ethnic-based party won one seat each. The ruling party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, is backed by the military. Their victory in the single seat came after the main opposition candidate was barred from standing because of a breach of electoral rules involving the citizenship of his parents. The landslide by Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, does not change the balance of power in the two houses of Parliament, which together have more than 600 representatives, but it carries strong symbolism and serves as a barometer of public support for the opposition after years of oppression. U Thein Sein, the president of Myanmar, was present at the meeting in Cambodia and was congratulated by other leaders for his handling of the elections, according to Indonesia's foreign minister, Marty Natalegawa. "This is a tremendous change in the dynamics nowadays," Mr. Natalegawa said, according to The Associated Press. Normally the Myanmar issue is discussed as a problem, but now it's seen as very much different. Myanmar is scheduled to take over the annual rotating chairmanship of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2014.