The White House is lifting economic sanctions and restoring trade benefits to former pariah state Myanmar, officials said Wednesday, as Aung San Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner and now the nations de facto leader, met with President Barack Obama.

Suu Kyis party swept historic elections last November, and the visit by the 71-year-old Nobel peace laureate, deeply respected in Washington, is a crowning occasion in the Obama administrations support for Myanmars shift to democracy, which the administration views as a major foreign policy achievement.

The US has eased broad economic sanctions since political reforms began five years ago but has retained more targeted restrictions on military-owned companies and dozens of officials and associates of the former ruling junta. US companies and banks have remained leery of involvement in one of Asias last untapped markets.