BANGKOK — Myanmar’s government on Thursday announced that it had reached an agreement with the United Nations that would be a first step toward the possible return of Rohingya Muslims to the country.

Beginning in August last year, about 700,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine State in far western Myanmar for neighboring Bangladesh in the most urgent exodus of humanity in a generation. The Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, were escaping a coordinated military campaign of slaughter, rape and the burning of their villages that some United Nations officials have said may amount to genocide.

While an agreement with the United Nations is a precondition for any meaningful repatriation of Rohingya to Myanmar, even the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees cautioned in a statement on Thursday that “conditions are not conducive for voluntary return yet.”

Few details were available on what the initial memorandum of understanding entailed. Myanmar said United Nations agencies would “cooperate with the government for the repatriation of the displaced persons who have been duly verified so that they can return voluntarily in safety and dignity.”