US President George W. Bush and Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Thursday discussed a US-brokered Middle East border accord, Myanmar and regional efforts to control bird flu.

The two leaders, meeting on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit here, also discussed efforts to stabilize Iraq, said Mike Green, senior Asia director on Bush’s National Security Council.

The discussion of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, came a day after the US president used a speech on democracy to describe it and North Korea as outposts of “isolation, backwardness, and brutality.”

“The president did raise Burma” and will do so again on Friday when he meets with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders, said Green. “It’s a very important issue for him.

“The president is interested in having frank discussions with leaders who have influence on that regime on how we can collectively try to improve the situation for the people there,” said Green.

Abdullah, whose country currently chairs ASEAN, told reporters Bush expressed concern over human rights violations in Myanmar during the hour-long meeting, which he described as “easy” and “free-flowing”.

Green noted that Bush had met October 31 with Charm Tong, the 23-year-old founding member of the Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN), which has documented the reported rape of hundreds of women and girls by Myanmar’s soldiers.

Bush “did not scold,” Abdullah replied when asked whether the president had echoed US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s earlier remarks chiding Southeast Asian nations for not speaking out enough on human rights abuses in Myanmar.

The US president asked Rice to brief Abdullah on her recent Middle East trip, which led to an agreement from Israel to open Gaza’s borders, including the main Rafah crossing.

Abullah said he told Bush there was a strong perception in the Muslim world that the United States was not even-handed in its treatment of Muslims in Iraq and the Palestinian territories and this needed to be addressed.

Bush and Abdullah discussed the war on terrorism in which “Malaysia has been a stalwart ally,” said the US official.

The meeting came as US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales made a one-day visit in Malaysia and met his counterpart Gani Patail for talks on various issues, including the global “war on terror” and software piracy.

Asked whether the two leaders had discussed air patrols in the piracy-plagued Strait of Malacca, Green replied: “They didn’t really talk about pirates, although that is an important issue in the region.”

The United States has previously held up Malaysia as the kind of moderate Muslim nation that could be a model for the future Iraq.