Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday to make it possible for refugees to return to their homes in Rakhine state, from which hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled.

According to a Japanese government spokesman, Abe also appealed to Suu Kyi in their meeting in Manila to restore order in the province and to allow access for humanitarian aid.

At the same time, Abe said Japan is ready to give as much support as possible to the Myanmar government's efforts to improve the situation in Rakhine, where attacks on security forces by armed insurgents in August led to outbreaks of violence.