Burma's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday met Pope Francis at the Vatican for 23-minute-long private audience, sources said.
The sources described Aung San Suu Kyi's audience with Francis as "extremely relaxed".
The Nobel peace laureate wore a yellow dress topped by a blue sari for the meeting, said the sources. She gave Francis a traditional Burmese ornament made from Alabaster, while the pontiff gifted Aung San Suu Kyi a medal made by artist Daniela Fusco symbolising the transition from selfishness to sharing, according to the sources.
Francis also gave Aung San Suu Kyi three documents and a message of peace and non-violence, the sources said.
Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday met Italy's foreign minister Angelino Alfano in Rome, where their talks touched on bilateral economic, scientific and technological cooperation and Italy's support for Burma's transition to full democracy, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
"The talks also focused on the difficult situation in the Burmese State of Rakhine and the peace process among ethnic groups," the statement said.
On Tuesday, Aung San Suu Kyi clashed in Brussels with the European Union's diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini when she rejected a decision by the United Nations’s rights council to investigate allegations of crimes by Burma’s security forces against minority Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine.
Aung San Suu Kyi told a press conference that Burmese authorities had been probing the alleged atrocities against Rohingya Muslims and were "taking action".
