KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24, 2006 (AFP) - The United States said Thursday that its sanctions against Myanmar were unaffected by a trade pact to be signed with the military-run country as part of the Southeast Asian bloc. The US and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will on Friday ink a Trade and Investment Framework Arrangement (TIFA) which is seen as a precursor to a full free-trade pact between the two sides. However, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said that in a "practical and ethnical sense" the situation would be resolved by the fact that the US does not and will not trade with Myanmar. "The TIFA creates building blocks and those building blocks will affect countries with which we have trade, they aren't going to affect a country with which we don't have trade," she said. "Obviously the United States has great concerns over the situation with Burma (Myanmar) and the regime in Burma," she said but signalled it would not sacrifice its relationship with ASEAN over the issue. "When you think of the volume and the value of trade between ASEAN countries and the United States, and foreign direct investment, we are very much a part of this region and we intend to stay with it." "We also have great faith that other systems and other structures in ASEAN will be able to show (Myanmar) there is a better way." ASEAN's secretary-general Ong Keng Yong has said that all 10 members of the grouping will sign the trade pact with the US. "The United States recognises ASEAN as a group that includes Myanmar," he said, adding that the pact demonstrates the United States' commitment to strengthening economic relations with Southeast Asia. Washington has urged Myanmar's Southeast Asian neighbours to exert more pressure on the regime, to encourage it to introduce democratic reforms and release detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The United States halted new investments to Myanmar in 1997 and imposed bans on financial transactions and imports in 2003. Visa restrictions on officials from the military junta and affiliated groups have also been implemented. ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. sls/lh