Colombo – Myanmar’s junta leader General Than Shwe will visit Sri Lanka this week for bilateral talks and to tour Buddhist shrines, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.

The reclusive leader will arrive Thursday at the invitation of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, a ministry official said, asking not to be named because she was not authorised to speak to the media.

It will be Than Shwe’s first visit to the island, the official said, adding that no Myanmar head of state had visited the country for over a decade.

Sri Lanka and Myanmar practise the Theravada Buddhist traditions and have had cultural and religious ties since the 11th century.

Than Shwe is to fly to the central district of Kandy on Thursday for a two-day tour of Buddhist temples and meetings with senior Sri Lankan officials.

He is due to tour Buddhist relics in the north-central district of Anuradhapura on Saturday, before flying to Colombo that same evening.

The junta leader is due to leave Colombo on Sunday after receiving blessings from Buddhist monks at a temple just outside the capital, the official said.

President Rajapakse visited Myanmar in June and thanked the junta for providing relief supplies for Sri Lankan civilians displaced during the final stages of fighting between troops and separatist Tamil rebels earlier this year.

In May, Sri Lanka defeated the Tamil Tigers, who had been fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils from the majority Sinhalese community.