Burma's government says it will reduce the sentences of some prisoners on humanitarian grounds.

State television and radio announced Monday that President Thein Sein signed a clemency order to mark the country's 64th anniversary of independence from British colonial rule on Wednesday.

The government said some death sentences will be commuted to life imprisonment. Prison terms above 30 years will be reduced to 30 years, and those between 20 and 30 years will be cut to 20 years. Shorter sentences will be cut by a quarter.

It is not clear how many – if any – of Burma's hundreds of political prisoners will benefit from the clemency.

A Thai-based human rights group told VOA's Burmese service in November that it knew of more than 1,600 political prisoners who were still languishing in Burmese prisons. Those figures were announced just days after the country's new, nominally civilian government released about 200 detainees.

Burma claims that only some 300 political prisoners remain incarcerated.