Burma's reformist president has held his first press conference for local press, a milestone after years of secrecy and censorship by the former military regime.

Thein Sein answered about 30 questions from local press and foreign correspondents on subjects ranging from fighting with ethnic rebels in the north to amending the country's military-fashioned constitution. The press conference in the capital, Naypyitaw, ran 20 minutes past its scheduled two-hour length.

The 67-year-old ex-general, who served as prime minister under the previous ruling junta, looked tense as he started answering questions but soon relaxed enough to reveal a little-known sense of humour.

Explaining why he was holding the pioneering press conference, he told of being interviewed many times during his recent visit to the United States and said he had the hardest time answering questions on the inquisitorial BBC programme HardTalk.

After surviving that experience, he said, he was no longer afraid of meeting the media. But he added that he feared he would also be criticised by Burma's media if he did not come out to talk at home after giving so many interviews abroad.

Thein Sein avoided revealing too much, speaking only in general terms even about critical matters such as the fighting in Kachin state, which reflects a deeper, long-running problem of how much autonomy to give the large ethnic minorities living in border regions.

In what many see as an example of the government's weakness compared to the still-influential military, his orders last year for the army to cease its fighting against the Kachin Independence Army were ignored.

"To get a ceasefire agreement is our government's goal," he said when asked about the matter. "It's the people's desire to get peace and we are doing our best for the people's desire."

He was also asked whether he planned to contest the 2015 election for a second presidential term. He replied that he had been thinking only of his current term.

Thein Sein was asked if he would give the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, his ally in the reform programme after being freed from house arrest, a role in his government. Whether or not she took a role in government depended on her, Thein Sein said.