BEIJING - A Myanmar gas consortium led by South Korea's Daewoo International has signed an agreement to sell natural gas to China, China's Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.

China and Myanmar plan to build oil and gas pipelines through Myanmar and into China's southwestern Yunnan province, bypassing the long journey around the Malacca Strait for oil cargoes and solving the problem of getting the gas to market, Chinese media have reported.

Few western companies will invest in the former Burma because of its poor human rights record and continued detention of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, which has led to a broad range of U.S. and European sanctions.

Daewoo said last year it had picked China as a preferred bidder for natural gas from a project in Myanmar, putting it at the front of a queue that also includes India and Thailand. Top Chinese officials have said that Beijing will encourage its energy companies to make more forays abroad to ensure the country's energy security, an even more important strategy than exploration at home. Beijing also offered incentives such as cheap loans and tax breaks to energy firms to fund their foreign exploration. --REUTERS