But the package is not likely to pass without discussion, with Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt set to promote a tougher line.

"What's on the table now would affect a little more than one percent of Burma's foreign trade and hardly touch the regime's central [finances]," Mr Bildt wrote in his blog on Monday morning.

"We should be able to do a little better," he added, saying that "smart sanctions should be smart."

In the meantime, the ministers are expected to agree to drop sanctions on the government in the central-Asian republic of Uzbekistan, which the 27-member bloc revises every six months.

The EU restrictions - which currently include a visa ban on 8 Uzbek officials and an arms embargo - were first imposed in October 2005, in response to Tashkent's refusal to agree to an international inquiry into the May 2005 Andijan massacre, in which Uzbek security forces killed hundreds of mostly unarmed protesters fleeing a demonstration.

Human rights groups warn that the situation has worsened and that the 13 imprisoned human rights defenders, whose release the EU called for in May this year, are still behind bars.

Germany, which has a NATO military base in the country, is leading the EU camp in favour of stopping the sanctions.

Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK want to continue the sanctions.

The foreign ministers are also set to agree on sending a fresh warning to Iran that time is running out for the country to meet international demands over its nuclear enrichment programme.

They are also to give the final go-ahead for EU troops to be sent to Chad and the Central African Republic to contain the violence spreading in the region.

The ministers will also discuss the draft Reform Treaty, with EU leaders meeting later this week in order to try and politically agree the text.