UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it is "an absolutely essential priority" to stop all violence against Burma's Rohingya Muslims, allow them to return to their homes, and grant them legal status.

Burma security forces killed hundreds of men, women and children during a systematic campaign to expel Rohingya Muslims, Amnesty International has said in a new report.

Amnesty International has claimed that Myanmar security forces and local vigilante mobs are still burning Rohingya villages in Burma, despite assertions by the country's leader Aung San Suu Kyi that they had stopped.

Three boats carrying ethnic Rohingya fleeing violence in Burma have capsized in Bangladesh and 26 bodies of women and children have been recovered, officials said.