NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar – The highest-ranking U.S. official to set foot in Myanmar’s presidential palace, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton brought a message of praise to Myanmar s president Thursday for his nascent gestures of reform, even as she warned him that significantly more progress was needed for change to take root.

The table may be set for “a new chapter in our shared history,” Clinton said at a news conference shortly after the meeting, adding that “while the measures already taken may be unprecedented and welcomed, they are just a beginning.”

After her meeting with President Thein Sein, Clinton flew to the nearby city of Yangon, where she toured the famed golden Shwedagon Pagoda and then met Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the country’s opposition movement.

The two women – among the world’s best-known female political figures – ate privately at the home of the U.S. chief of mission. Their talk touched on personal subjects, such as Suu Kyi’s childhood and her reading, as well as political matters, including Suu Kyi’s intention of running in next year’s parliamentary elections and strategies to encourage government reform, according to senior State Department officials who were not authorized to speak on the record.

Suu Kyi remarked that she had begun reading books on military personalities in an attempt to understand commanders such as Dwight Eisenhower and Otto von Bismarck who later went into politics, as Thein Sein did.

For weeks leading up to Clinton’s visit, the Obama administration had emphasized cautious optimism in dealing with the authoritarian and reclusive leaders of Myanmar, also known as Burma, a country with a long history of repression and strife that has seen promises of progress dissipate before, and in some cases, devolve into lethal crackdowns.

Seeking to allay such doubts, Thein Sein spent much of his meeting with Clinton on Thursday giving her a detailed 45-minute presentation about further change, according to U.S. officials. His plan for reforming areas of his government long criticized by the U.S. and others included: the gradual release of political prisoners, a cease-fire in the war between military and ethnic minorities, political reform, media freedom and adopting international agreements on nuclear programs to allay suspicions about weapons trades with North Korea.

Clinton said she responded by telling him that the United States will “match action with action” – greater aid, economic rewards and diplomatic prestige in return for bolder reforms.

Thein Sein and others in his government have pushed repeatedly for Washington to lift economic sanctions against Burma, viewed as the ultimate prize for their overtures to the West.

In their meeting Thursday, Clinton offered the Burmese significantly smaller incentives in hopes of nudging them forward without giving up too much too fast.

She discussed U.S. support for loosening restrictions on health and microfinancing programs by the United Nations and offered U.S. support for exploring other international aid.

The most direct result of the meeting, however, could be a restoration of U.S. diplomatic relations and an upgrade of the U.S. mission into a full embassy with an ambassador, something Clinton said she discussed with the Myanmar officials.