Dhaka: Two top foreign office functionaries from Burma and Bangladesh pledged on Wednesday, during a meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum held in Singapore, to resolve outstanding disputes over their shared maritime boundaries at the earliest, according to a press release.

Burma's foreign minister, U Nyan Win, and the foreign affairs adviser of Bangladesh, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, agreed to solve the maritime dispute as soon as possible during bilateral talks in Singapore.

Burma and Bangladesh have had problems resolving their maritime boundary after large gas and oil reserves were discovered in the Bay of Bengal. Bangladesh is keen to bid out its offshore resources to foreign companies for gas and oil exploration like Burma has.

Korea's Daewoo and other foreign companies have been exploring for gas and oil in offshore blocks in Burma's water near Bangladesh's maritime boundary, and large gas reserves have been found by the companies in Burmese waters.

Bangladesh has hopes that this maritime border demarcation will pave the way for it to explore for gas and oil in its sea unhindered in the future.

The two countries have had talks many times in the past about the demarcation of the maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal, but the issue did not lead to a resolution.

Bangladesh and Burma experts on sea-related issues met in Dhaka earlier this year though, and decided to hold another round of talks on the issue in Burma this year to resolve the issue.

Bangladesh needs to submit its maritime boundary to the International Seabed Authority by 2011 in keeping with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.