On a visit to Myanmar, US President Barack Obama has criticised the rules that prevent pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president of her country.<br /><br />Washington has pressed for more change in the nation also known as Burma, where political and economic reforms launched two years ago seem to have stalled.<br /><br />After a warm embrace the two Nobel laureates got down to business.<br /><br />Suu Kyi is barred from running in next year’s presidential election because her two sons are foreign nationals.<br /><br />“The Constitutional amendment process needs to reflect inclusion rather than exclusion. For example, I don’t understand the provision which would bar somebody from running for president because of who their children are. That doesn’t make much sense to me,” Obama said.<br /><br />“Now we are asking for Constitution amendments, not because we are trying to win a case, but because we think that certain amendments are necessary if this country is to be a truly functioning democracy in line with the will of the people,” added Aung San Suu Kyi.<br /><br />The US has urged Myanmar to allow minority Rohingya Muslims to become citizens and scrap plans to send them to detention camps if they don’t identify themselves as Bengalis, a term they say wrongly implies they are immigrants.<br /><br />Tens of thousands were displaced in clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in western Myanmar 2012.<br /><br />Obama said: “We’re paying attention at how religion minorities are treated in this country. I recognise the complexity of the situation in the Rakhine State. On the other hand I’m a firm believer that any legitimate government has to be based on the rule of law and on the recognition that all people are equal under the law.”<br /><br />Asked about the Rohingyas’ plight, Suu Kyi said she was against violence of any kind and that a solution must come through the rule of law.