are fighting a legitimate campaign against terrorists responsible for a string of attacks on the police and army since last October.

Officials blame Rohingya militants for killing non-Muslims and burning their homes.

"We need to wipe out the threat of the terrorism in those regions," Ko Ko Hlaing, a presidential adviser of the previous government said on Thursday at a forum arranged by military-owned media to discuss the crisis.

He said rehabilitation and development are important and the citizenship issue must be settled, but the first priority needed to be "the detoxification of dangerous ideology of extremism".

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been in Myanmar this week to meet Aung San Suu Kyi. ( AP )

'Bengalis burning their houses'

Ms Suu Kyi's spokesman, Zaw Htay, on Thursday posted what he said were"photos of Bengalis setting fire to their houses".

The pictures of several sword-wielding women wearing headscarfs and men in Islamic prayer caps, or "Kufi", setting a house on fire, which were published in one of the country's leading newspapers, were also shared widely by the military.

"These photos showing that Bengalis are torching their houses emerge at a time when international media have made groundless accusations of setting fire to Bengali houses by the government security forces and the killings of Bengalis," said the Eleven Media daily.

But the photographs sparked controversy on social media with many people who identified themselves as Myanmar Muslims saying they appeared staged.

Rights monitors and Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh say the Myanmar army has been trying to force them out of Rakhine state with a campaign