SINGAPORE, Aug. 2 Kyodo -- Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi will meet with Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials said Friday.

Kawaguchi, who arrived in Singapore on Friday for a two-day visit, is scheduled to arrive in Yangon on Saturday evening.

Officials said she will meet Monday with Suu Kyi, becoming the highest-level official from a major industrialized country to meet with the opposition National League for Democracy leader since she was released in early May after nearly 20 months of house arrest.

She will also meet Monday with Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the head of Myanmar's junta, who serves as chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

Ahead of those meetings, Kawaguchi will meet Saturday with Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, the first secretary of the SPDC, and Foreign Minister Win Aung.

She told reporters on July 25 that she planned to urge the junta's leaders ''not to let democratization backslide.''

Kawaguchi is likely to urge them to launch a full-fledged political dialogue with Suu Kyi, with an eye toward securing political stability and promoting democracy in Myanmar.

Officials said she is likely to tell them that Japan is prepared to consider expanding its official development assistance to Myanmar in parallel with progress in democratization.

She will be the first foreign minister from Myanmar's largest donor nation to visit since Shintaro Abe did so in 1983.

Kawaguchi is making the visits to Singapore and Myanmar after taking part in a series of meetings held this year in Brunei under the auspices of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member.