Two Buddhists have been arrested after Muslim shops were destroyed in northern Kachin State, police said Saturday, in a new outbreak of religious violence.

Myanmar is in the grip of acute religious tension after a deadly wave of unrest in March that saw monks and Buddhist mobs attack Muslim areas in violence that has edged towards the country's main city Yangon.

Indonesian anti-terrorist police have detained two men suspected of planning a bomb attack on the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta on Friday in the wake of fresh violence against Muslims in Myanmar, officials said.

The suspects were arrested late Thursday traveling by motorbike in a busy residential area in the south of the capital with five assembled pipe bombs, national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said in a statement.

Myanmar President Thein Sein plans a landmark visit to Washington this month in a sign of U.S. support for his reforms despite a recent surge in anti-Muslim violence, a source said Thursday.

Thein Sein, who would be the first leader of the country to visit in half a century, is planning to be in the U.S. capital around May 20 or May 21, a staff member at the U.S. Congress told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

Religious violence that saw mobs attack mosques and torch homes left at least one dead in central Myanmar, authorities said Wednesday, as anti-Muslim unrest crept closer to the commercial hub Yangon.

Riots broke out Tuesday in the small town of Oakkan, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Yangon, after a woman accidentally bumped into a young monk, authorities said, amid acute Buddhist-Muslim tensions after a series of attacks in March.

Police in central Myanmar fired warning shots to disperse a crowd after a mosque and shops were attacked Tuesday, the president's spokesman said, in the latest religious unrest to hit the country.

The fighting was sparked in the small town of Oakkan, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Yangon, after a woman accidentally bumped into a young novice monk and knocked his alms bowl onto the ground, according to Ye Htut.

Myanmar on Tuesday pardoned dozens of political prisoners, activists said, a day after the European Union agreed to end almost all sanctions against the former pariah state.

At least 59 political prisoners were included in the latest amnesty, Bo Kyi of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) told Agence France Presse.

Myanmar has waged "a campaign of ethnic cleansing" against Rohingya Muslims, a leading rights watchdog said Monday, citing evidence of mass graves and forced displacement.

The Rohingya, who are denied citizenship by the country also known as Burma, have faced crimes against humanity including murder, persecution, deportation and forced transfer, New York-based Human Rights Watch said.

Myanmar's reformist president called for multi faith harmony in a national address to mark the country's New Year celebrations Sunday, following recent anti-Muslim unrest that has scarred communities.

Thein Sein dedicated his speech to promoting religious unity as the nation remains tense after a wave of rioting last month that left 43 dead, thousands displaced and saw homes and mosques destroyed.

Members of Myanmar's Muslim minority Rohingya community said Thursday they have been barred from a gathering to welcome democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi when she visits Japan.

Suu Kyi is expected from Saturday in her first visit to the country for nearly three decades, after time spent as a researcher at Kyoto University in 1985-6.

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter warned Friday that deadly religious violence in Myanmar was undermining the country's hard-won democratic reforms.

At least 43 people were killed in Buddhist-Muslim unrest in central Myanmar last month, marring international optimism about the nation's emergence from decades of military rule.