Phyo Hein Htut, 28 and Ye Hein Zaw, 20, have each been charged with conspiracy to assault and make a violent attack upon a foreign official, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said on Friday.

Phyo Hein Htut told FBI investigators that an arms dealer in Thailand who sells weapons to the Burmese military had contacted him online and offered him money to hire attackers to hurt Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun and force him to step down.

If the ambassador, who represents Myanmar's elected civilian government which was overthrown by the military in February, did not step down, then the arms dealer proposed that the attackers would kill him, according to the complaint.

Phyo Hein Htut and the arms dealer then agreed on a plan to tamper with the ambassador's car to cause a crash.

Ye Hein Zaw contacted Phyo Hein Htut and made two money transfers totaling $4,000 in late July, according to the complaint. Phyo Hein Htut told the FBI he was supposed to receive an additional $1,000 after the attack was completed.

Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, who represents Myanmar's elected civilian government which was overthrown by the military in February, has said a threat had been made against him and US authorities had stepped up his security

Tun did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the charges.

Myanmar's junta fired him in February, but for now he remains the country's UN envoy because the United Nations has not acknowledged the junta.

"These defendants reached across borders and oceans in designing a violent plot against an international leader on United States soil," New York Police Department Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a statement.

Australian Associated Press