US divisions over Myanmar threaten to overshadow Obama visit A growing political battle over Myanmar's transition from military rule threatens to overshadow President Barack Obama's second visit to the fast-opening country once cast as a rare administration foreign policy success. Divisions in Washington over whether the quasi-civilian government is committed to reforms ahead of elections due next year are complicating Mr Obama's efforts to win influence in a country that has strong historical ties with China. Also at stake is the fate of continuing US sanctions on high-profile Myanmar individuals, companies and commodities, as well as the prospects for US businesses that have so far largely stayed away because of fears about those laws and the country's uncertain politics. "The White House is trying to support continued reform in a country that had cloistered itself for nearly four and a half decades," said Stephen Morrison from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. But there's a real push from Senate and House legislators on human rights and democracy, so the president will have to address this. As Mr Obama jets into the Myanmar capital for the summit starting on Wednesday of the 10-member Asean grouping of southeast Asian states, the atmosphere will be far removed from the euphoria over his trip two years ago after the end of almost half a century of dictatorship. Critics in the US Congress and elsewhere have denounced President Thein Sein's administration over anti-Muslim mob violence, jail sentences handed down to journalists and others, and a law that would exclude Aung San Suu Kyi, the main opposition leader, from the presidency. A peace process aimed at securing the first-ever nationwide ceasefire has also stalled, amid skirmishes between the government and regional militias in the patchwork of internal conflicts that have plagued the country since independence from Britain in 1948. Ms Suu Kyi, whose past strong supporters include Mitch McConnell, the likely new Senate majority leader, warned last week that change had not come to Myanmar as quickly as some people - including in the US - had hoped. She is lobbying hard for a change to a constitutional provision that excludes from the presidency citizens whose children - like her two sons by Michael Aris, the late British academic - hold foreign passports. "She feels the US could have done more, they need to do more - and now is the time to step up," says a supporter of Ms Suu Kyi. The Obama administration denies that it has ignored human rights abuses or problems in the electoral process. "Our primary message to the leadership of the government of Burma is that we recognise the progress that the country has made, but we're not blind to the remaining challenges and the missteps," says Evan Medeiros, director of Asian affairs at the White House national security council. Myanmar is still known to many as Burma. The growing rift between the Obama administration and Congress were first laid bare in July, when the House foreign relations committee called for the cutting of military ties and other new sanctions to be considered against the Myanmar government. Ed Royce, committee chairman, warned that it was "time that we take off the rose-coloured glasses and see the situation in Burma for what it is." In August 70 members of Congress wrote to John Kerry, US secretary of state, urging the administration to orchestrate a "significant recalibration" of its friendly ties with the Myanmar government. Congress is considering legislation that could limit recently started security assistance to Myanmar. We recognise the progress that the country has made but we're not blind to the remaining challenges and the missteps Evan Medeiros, White House national security council Optimists say what is happening in Myanmar is the inevitable product of both the readjustment of international expectations and of power struggles within a country still strongly influenced by a military guaranteed a quarter of parliamentary seats. Those who say reform is still on track point to the promise of a landmark gathering of senior Myanmar and military figures, including Ms Suu Kyi, hosted on October 31 by Mr Thein Sein, a former general - although the meeting did not appear to yield any substantive agreements, nor a formal agenda to follow up. Analysts say it is hard to predict how US policy will flow after the November Congressional elections, as thinking in Washington on Myanmar has always been - as Thant Myint-U, a historian and author who has advised the Myanmar government on the peace process, puts it - "bipartisan, with hawks and doves on both sides." But Mr Thant Myint-U said the US government, investors and others would now be watching closely for evidence of how real the government's rhetorical commitments to wooing overseas companies will prove to be. "What people are still uncertain about is how welcoming Myanmar is going to be to foreign investment," he said.