US Senator Jim Webb met Myanmar military ruler Than Shwe and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday after securing the release of a US citizen jailed for visiting Suu Kyi's house in May.

Webb, a Democrat with close links to US President Barack Obama, became the first US official to hold talks with the reclusive Than Shwe, encountering the regime's supremo in his bunker-like capital, Naypyidaw, officials said.

Webb then flew to Yangon to meet Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi at a government guesthouse near her home - her first meeting with a foreign official since her house arrest was extended by 18 months earlier last week.

Webb's office later issued a statement in Washington saying he had secured an agreement from the junta to release John Yettaw, who was jailed for seven years this week over an incident in which he swam to Suu Kyi's lakeside home.

"I am grateful to the Myanmar government," Webb was quoted as saying in the statement.

"It is my hope that we can take advantage of these gestures as a way to begin laying a foundation of goodwill and confidence-building in the future," Webb said.

The statement said Yettaw would be officially deported this morning, adding that "Senator Webb will bring him out of the country on a military aircraft that is returning to Bangkok in the afternoon."

A Myanmar official confirmed Yettaw's deportation.

"Yettaw will be deported and leave with Webb," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Webb had also urged Myanmar's military regime to free Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the last two decades under house arrest, the senator's office said.