BANGKOK: The United States, although embarking on a new policy of engagement, will not lift its sanctions on Myanmar unless its ruling generals make concrete progress towards democratic reform, a senior US diplomat said today.

US Ambassador for ASEAN Affairs Scot Marciel spoke after he and another State Department official completed the highest-ranking visit to Myanmar in 14 years, putting into motion the Obama administration’s new policy of “pragmatic engagement” with the isolated country.

He made it clear that the stick would remain along with the new carrot, and that Washington would be closely watching the junta’s next moves.

“We are going to maintain our existing sanctions, pending progress. They are still a useful tool. We would certainly be looking at lifting sanctions if there is significant progress,” Marciel told a forum at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.

He and Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell held talks Tuesday and Wednesday with the ruling generals and had a rare meeting with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been under house arrest for most of the last two decades.

Marciel, ambassador to the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, stressed the vital sign that positive change was being made would be a real dialogue among Myanmar’s antagonistic parties — the military ruler’s, Suu Kyi’s democracy parties and ethnic minority groups. Without this, he said, next year’s general election would not be credible. “There is an opportunity for progress. The elections could be an opportunity, but only if they are done right,” he said.

The freeing of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and cessation of human rights abuses against minority groups would be other signals that would trigger a positive U.S. response, Marciel said.