Peace mediators say Burmese government negotiators and ethnic Mon separatists have reached a preliminary deal ending decades of low-level warfare.

The cease-fire deal is the seventh such truce between Burma's new, nominally-civilian government and rebels from 11 ethnic groups, since the country's long-ruling military junta ceded power and permitted national elections last year.

A spokesman for the New Mon State Party told VOA's Burmese service the agreement calls on separatists to restrict the movement of weapons and to set up liaison offices. The deal — reached Wednesday in the Mon state capital, Mawlamyaing — is expected to become official later this month.

Mon rebels, like those from several other large ethnic groupings, have battled for autonomy in eastern and southern Burma since the late 1940s.

The latest truce comes as the government of President Thein Sein seeks to persuade the United States and the European Union to lift economic sanctions imposed on the former junta during decades of authoritarian rule.

The government signed similar deals with ethnic Karen and ethnic Shan leaders in January, and restarted preliminary talks with ethnic Kachin rebels last month, as well. It has in recent months also released hundreds of political prisoners jailed by the former junta and promised free and fair by-elections in April.