YANGON (AFP) -- US Senator Jim Webb held historic talks with Myanmar junta leader Than Shwe Saturday, becoming the first senior Washington official to meet the reclusive military supremo, officials said.

The encounter appeared to have swift results, with officials saying the regime would likely deport U.S. citizen John Yettaw, who was jailed this week after swimming to the lakeside home of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
Democrat Webb was also set to meet Suu Kyi herself, making him the first foreigner to see the Nobel laureate since the junta outraged the world by extending her house arrest in connection with the Yettaw case.
“Mr Yettaw is likely to be deported after the visit by the U.S. Senator. They will not leave together,” a Myanmar official said on condition of anonymity after Webb met Than Shwe in the regime's bunker capital, Naypyidaw.
Further details of the meeting between Webb, who is close to U.S. President Barack Obama and chairs the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific affairs, and the Myanmar ruler were not immediately available.
Webb also met members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD). He arrived in Myanmar Friday as part of a two-week regional tour.
His visit has had a high profile because it comes just days after a court on Tuesday found Suu Kyi and Yettaw guilty of breaching security laws, unleashing a storm of international criticism of Myanmar's ruling generals.
The UN Security Council issued a watered-down statement Thursday expressing “serious concern” about her detention, while the European Union the same day extended sanctions against the junta, including the judges in the trial.
But the Webb trip has been seen as heralding a softer U.S. stance towards Myanmar, after the Obama administration said earlier this year that it was reviewing its policy on the country, including sanctions.
Webb flew to the main city of Yangon Saturday after meeting Than Shwe, where he was expected to meet Suu Kyi at a state guest house, not at the lakeside mansion where she is under house arrest, Myanmar officials said.
He was not due to meet Yettaw, a diabetic and epileptic former military veteran who is being held at Yangon's notorious Insein Prison. Yettaw was hospitalized earlier this month after suffering a series of fits.
Dissident groups have warned that the junta could “manipulate” the trip to be seen as an endorsement of the regime's treatment of Suu Kyi, who has already spent 14 of the last 20 years in detention.
Critics have accused the junta of trumping up the charges to keep Suu Kyi locked up during elections next year, and of using the polls themselves to legitimize the grip on power that the military has held since 1962.
The junta refused to recognize the NLD's victory in elections in 1990.
But U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last month offered the fresh incentive of possible investment if the junta frees Suu Kyi, while warning of concerns over nuclear cooperation between North Korea and Myanmar.
Webb, a tough talking Vietnam war veteran, said in April that Washington should take a new approach of “constructive” engagement towards Myanmar with the aim of lifting sanctions.
But he said in July that the trial of Suu Kyi would make this task more difficult.
Webb, 63, was decorated for his service in Vietnam, has written six novels and served in the late 1980s as secretary of the US Navy under Republican President Ronald Reagan.
His son served in Iraq and Webb wore his old combat boots on the campaign trail for the Senate in 2006. Webb won praise among fellow Democrats for his criticisms of George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq in March 2003.
Than Shwe has, meanwhile, been a long-term bete noire of the United States. A former postman, he has ruled Myanmar since 1992 with an iron-fist, ruthlessly suppressing his rivals.