Obama says must send message to Russia to stop destabilizing Ukraine ...

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President Barack Obama said on Sunday it was necessary to send a message to Russia that its "destabilizing" actions in eastern and southern Ukraine must stop, as the United States and its European partners prepared to impose new sanctions on Moscow.

Speaking at a news conference during a visit to Malaysia, Obama said any decision on whether to slap "sectoral" sanctions on the Russian economy at a later time would depend on whether the United States and its allies could find a unified position on how to proceed.

The next round of sanctions, which could be unveiled as early as Monday, are expected to target Russian individuals and entities but are not likely to directly hit sectors of the Russian economy such as energy, which would also hurt the Europeans.

"We're going to be in a stronger position to deter Mr Putin when he sees that the world is unified and the United States and Europe is unified rather than this is just a U.S.-Russian conflict," Obama told reporters.

He said Russia had not "lifted a finger" to get pro-Russian separatist rebels in Ukraine to comply with an international agreement to defuse the crisis.

"In fact, there's strong evidence that they've been encouraging the activities in eastern and southern Ukraine," he said.

For his part, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said that he and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed to upgrade the two countries' ties to a "comprehensive partnership."

"This marks a new phase in our relationship, with greater collaboration in economy, security, education, science, technology," Najib told a joint news conference with Obama following their discussion.

"We also decided to reinfigure senior officials' dialogues as a key forum for high-level discussion."

Najib also said that the two leaders, in a discussion about territorial tensions in the South China Sea, had agreed on the importance of upholding international law.

Turning to Myanmar, U.S. President Obama said that the rights of Myanmar's minority Muslim population were not being fully protected and warned that the Southeast Asian country would not succeed if Muslims there were oppressed.

Obama praised political reforms under way in once-isolated Myanmar but said the danger of democratization was that it could unleash religious and ethnic conflicts and that such developments could move Myanmar in a bad direction.

"You have a Muslim minority (in Myanmar) that the broader population has historically looked down upon and whose rights are not being fully protected," Obama told a townhall-style meeting of young leaders from across Southeast Asia. "Myanmar won't succeed if the Muslim population is oppressed."

Members of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority have been the victims of attacks and widespread abuse in recent years blamed by human rights groups and other observers on security forces and anti-Muslim mobs in the country's Rakhine state.

REUTERS