Dhaka:  Bangladesh's newly elected Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday expressed a desire to solve maritime boundary disputes with their neighboring countries Burma and India, a Bangladesh official said.

"She said that the government would discuss the issue with India and Myanmar to resolve the disputes over maritime boundaries," the official said.

The Prime Minister raised the issue of the maritime boundary at her first meeting with officials from the energy ministry, and wanted to know the latest situation as well as what surveys the ministry had conducted in order to demarcate the boundary.

Sheik Hasina had plans to sit with the foreign ministry and other relevant departments to discuss the issue of the country's maritime border so that Bangladesh could lodge its claims with the United Nations before 2011.

According to an official source, the resolution of the maritime boundary with neighboring countries is a top foreign policy priority of the current Bangladesh government.

Burma and India recently sent survey ships for gas exploration in Bangladesh territorial waters, causing cross-border tension.

Bangladesh strongly opposed Burma and India entering its territory to explore for gas offshore.

India and Burma were claiming maritime areas beyond their jurisdiction and often intruded into Bangladesh's territorial waters, but the foreign ministry is handling the issue, the official added.

Bangladesh will have to lodge its claim regarding the maritime boundary with the United Nations by 2011 after completing the necessary surveys to back up its claim to the demarcated waters.

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