MELBOURNE, Australia?United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a visit to Australia Sunday that Myanmar's elections "expose the abuses" of the ruling military junta.

Myanmar began voting Sunday in its first election in 20 years with complaints of intimidation adding to fears the poll is a sham to create a facade of democracy after decades of iron-fisted military rule.

"We look at Burma today holding flawed elections that once again expose the abuses of the military junta," Clinton told an audience at the University of Melbourne, using Myanmar's former name.

"And it's heart breaking because the people of Burma deserve so much better," she said.

"And Australia and the United States will continue to work together to establish an international commission of inquiry to hold those leaders in Burma accountable for human rights violations (and) continuing persecution of ethnic minorities," she said.

"And we hope that perhaps out of these elections some leaders will emerge who know Burma has to take a different track, that they cannot continue to do the same thing and realize the potential of their people," she said.