Burmese President Thein Sein says the new pro-military government is ready to reach out to opposition groups and the international community, and says it will step up efforts to seek peace with armed ethnic groups.

The Burmese leader made his latest overtures Monday in an address to a new session of parliament. He said the nominally civilian government which took power after elections last year is ready to work with everyone toward what he called “citizen rights.”

Last week, Thein Sein met with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in a meeting described by both participants as friendly. A spokesman for the Nobel laureate's National League for Democracy party later told the Associated press the meeting could be seen as a possible first step toward national reconciliation.

The new government has also welcomed special United Nations human rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana to the country this week for meetings with opposition leaders and senior government officials. A vocal critic of the former military junta, Quintana last year enraged the country's ruling generals when he called for a war crimes investigation of the former regime.

Western nations maintaining sanctions against the government have also called for the release of more than 2,000 political prisoners languishing in Burmese jails, and an end to rights abuses against ethnic minorities.

Thein Sein did not mention the prisoner issue in Monday's address.