Sat Oct 6, 12:51 AM ET

YANGON - Myanmar's junta Saturday tried to cool growing UN pressure over its deadly crackdown on peaceful protests, seeking talks with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and relaxing its blockage of the Internet.

But analysts warned that the rare gestures offered by the regime appeared to be token efforts to stave off tougher UN action demanded by the United States and other western countries.

Faced with the biggest protests against military rule seen in nearly two decades, Myanmar's government launched a bloody crackdown in late September that left at least 13 dead and more than 2,000 locked up.

UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari made a four-day mission here to express global outrage at the junta's actions, and warned the UN Security Council Friday that the nation's turmoil could have "serious international repercussions."

As he was briefing the Council in New York, state television in Myanmar broadcast images of the detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for the first time in at least four years.

The television report referred to her as 'Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,' using a respectful form of address, rather than just her name, as was common in the past.

The regime also restored some Internet access -- but only during a military-imposed curfew -- and announced that it had freed hundreds of detained Buddhist monks who led the protests in Yangon.

The military, which has ruled this country also known as Burma for 45 years, rarely makes any concessions, but analysts warned the gestures were just a bid to ward off tougher international action.

"The regime is trying to cool down international pressure. The junta hopes to defuse pressure as the UN Security Council is likely to take some action against Burma following Gambari's briefing," Thailand-based Myanmar analyst Win Min said.

Junta leader Than Shwe has made a heavily conditioned offer to hold direct talks with Aung San Suu Kyi, but insisted that the Nobel peace prize winner first drop her support for sanctions and tell her supporters to stop confronting the government.

"It's a mixed signal. It showed Than Shwe at least recognized internal and international calls for dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi," Win Min said.

"But at the same time, the conditions set by the regime were not realistic at all. It looks like the regime really doesn't want to talk to her."

Aung San Suu Kyi, 62, has spent most of the last 18 years under house arrest, but she remains an international symbol of non-violent struggle against tyranny.

Protests against Myanmar's crackdown and in support of Aung San Suu Kyi were expected to take place around the world Saturday.

In one of the first rallies, hundreds of activists took to the streets in New Zealand while later demonstrations were planned for Taipei, Delhi, Geneva, London, Lisbon and Ottawa.

The United States has led global calls for her release and warned Friday that it may push for UN sanctions if the ruling junta kept up a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

After Gambari's briefing, the United States, Britain and France circulated a draft of a non-binding statement condemning Myanmar's government.

"The Security Council condemns the violent repression by the government of Myanmar of peaceful demonstrations, including the use of force against religious figures and institutions," the text said.

Gambari told reporters that there was a consensus among members of the Security Council that the status quo in Myanmar "is unacceptable and unsustainable and probably unrealistic."

He also said Aung San Suu Kyi appeared to be in good spirits when he met her.

"But now I think she wants this to be used as an opportunity to really engage in dialogue with the authorities so that together they can move the country forward," he told CNN.

Myanmar's neighbour China has previously sheltered the generals from action at the United Nations.

China's ambassador to the world body, Wang Guangyam, has warned that pressure for greater democratisation "would only lead to confrontation."

Sat Oct 6, 12:05 AM ET

UNITED NATIONS - The chief U.N. envoy to Myanmar urged the country's military rulers on Friday to strive toward democracy and quickly start talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The U.S. warned it will press for sanctions if the junta does not act.

"This is an hour of historic opportunity for Myanmar," Ibrahim Gambari told the U.N. Security Council following his four-day trip to the country after the government's crackdown on peaceful demonstrators and Buddhist monks. "To delay the prospect of a peaceful, prosperous and democratic Myanmar is to deny it to those who deserve it most, the people of Myanmar."

A dozen red-robed monks from Myanmar who now live in the United States sat in the front row of the visitors gallery listening intently.

Gambari said he is "cautiously encouraged" that the country's military ruler, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, said he would meet Suu Kyi "although with certain conditions." They include her giving up calls for confronting the government and for imposing sanctions against it, Myanmar state media said.

Gambari stressed, however, that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for talks without any preconditions to overcome "the high level of mistrust" between Than Shwe and Suu Kyi.

"From my own conversations (with Suu Kyi), she appears to be very anxious to have a proper dialogue," Gambari told reporters afterward.

"The expectation is ... not an open-ended dialogue, but dialogue that (is) targeted to achieving national reconciliation in an all-inclusive manner, a constitution that reflects the will of the majority of the people, and also a government that is responsive to the needs of their own people," he said.

Gambari, who met twice with Suu Kyi and once with Than Shwe during his visit, addressed the council shortly after the secretary-general urged Myanmar's military rulers to "take bold actions toward democratization and respect for human rights."

"I must reiterate that the use of force against peaceful demonstrators is abhorrent and unacceptable," Ban said, calling on the government to release all detainees "without further delay."

Gambari urged Myanmar's leadership "to make the bold choices" to demonstrate its commitment to democracy and national reconciliation.

The U.S., Britain and France circulated a draft presidential statement Friday night welcoming Gambari's mission, condemning the government's "violent repression" of peaceful demonstrations and calling for the immediate release of all detainees and political prisoners, including Suu Kyi, to promote "genuine reconciliation, dialogue and democratization."

The draft statement, which the council is expected to discuss next week, supports a dialogue between the government and opposition "without conditions."

Gambari, who said his mission helped convey the "urgent need" for action to the government, said he has been invited to return in mid-November but may try to go earlier.

The United States threatened to introduce a resolution seeking sanctions, including an arms embargo, against Myanmar if it does not move quickly toward national reconciliation and release thousands of detainees.

But China and Russia remain opposed to council action, saying the situation in Myanmar is an internal affair that does not threaten international peace and security.

Myanmar's U.N. ambassador, Kyaw Tint Swe, also urged the Security Council not to take any action, saying his country was committed to forging ahead with national reconciliation.

"Despite the recent tragic events, the situation in Myanmar is not, and I repeat not, a threat to either regional or international peace and security," the ambassador said. "No Security Council action is warranted."

Kyaw Tint Swe said stability had returned to his country and people have been holding peaceful, pro-government rallies "to demonstrate their aversion to recent, provocative demonstrations." Critics say such rallies are shams, filled with people ordered to attend by authorities.

Myanmar's junta took power in 1988 after crushing the democracy movement led by Suu Kyi. In 1990, it refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, won a landslide election victory. Suu Kyi has been detained for nearly 12 of the last 18 years and is currently under house arrest.

"She looked better this time than last November when I last saw her," Gambari said.

Ban sent Gambari to Myanmar after troops quashed the protests with gunfire last week. The government said 10 people were killed, but dissident groups put the death toll at up to 200 and say 6,000 people were detained, including thousands of monks.

Myanmar's ambassador said Friday that 2,095 detainees had been released, including 728 monks, and that more releases will follow.

Meanwhile, actor Jim Carrey said Friday the international community was sanctioning the Myanmar crackdown by failing to take firm action against the military junta.

At a news conference near U.N. headquarters, Carrey urged the Security Council to pass a resolution authorizing an arms embargo against Myanmar, saying "this is a government that uses its weapons not in self-defense but against its own citizens."

Carrey is one of numerous celebrities who have signed a letter calling on Ban to help win the freedom of Suu Kyi.

Sat Oct 6, 12:00 AM ET

UNITED NATIONS - Key western members of the UN Security Council late Friday circulated a draft statement condemning the "violent repression" by Myanmar's military regime of anti-government protests.

"The Security Council condemns the violent repression by the Government of Myanmar of peaceful demonstrations, including the use of force against religious figures and institutions," said the text drafted by the United States, Britain and France and submitted to other members of the council.

It noted "with concern continuing mass detentions, and calls on the Government of Myanmar to exercise utmost restraint and to cease repressive measures, as an essential first step in de-escalating the situation."

The non-binding statement, which requires consensus by all 15 council members to be adopted, was circulated after the council heard a briefing by UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari on his recent four-day mission to Myanmar.

It is to be discussed by the Security Council at expert level on Monday.

The text welcomed Gambari's mission and his briefing to the council.

It called for "the immediate release of those detained, and ... for those injured to be allowed access to proper medical care, and for a full account to be provided of those jailed, missing, or killed following the recent peaceful demonstrations."

It also urged Myanmar's rulers to release all political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, "in order to permit dialogue with leaders of all political and ethnic groups in support of an inclusive process of genuine reconciliation, dialogue and democratization."

It stressed the need for the ruling junta "to engage without further delay in such a process, with the direct support of the United Nations."

And it underscored the Council's "support for the early return to Myanmar of Mr. Gambari, in order to maintain momentum and maximize the prospects for concrete progress."

Gambari earlier Friday said he now planned to return to Myanmar before mid-November, the time he had earlier arranged.

The draft also contained a council appeal to the ruling generals "to ensure full and unlimited access for Mr. Gambari during his visit."

Fri Oct 5, 11:59 PM ET

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's junta said Friday that hundreds of Buddhist monks were detained during its crackdown on pro-democracy activists and that it was hunting for four more clerics it described as ringleaders of the uprising.

The government insisted that most of the monks had already been freed, with only 109 still in custody, according to an official statement broadcast on state TV.

The junta's treatment of the Buddhist monks — who are revered in this deeply religious nation — is a key issue that could anger soldiers loyal to the military rulers.

Twenty-nine monks were suspected of being protest leaders and 25 of them were already in custody, state media said. It identified the monks still at large as U Kantiya, U Visaitta, U Awbatha and U Parthaka, but did not name their monasteries.

Demonstrations that began in mid-August over a fuel price increase swelled into Myanmar's largest anti-government protests in 19 years, inspired largely by thousands of monks coming out on the streets.

Television images last week showed soldiers shooting into crowds of unarmed protesters — but the government on Friday described the troops' reaction as "systematically controlling" the protesters.

The government says 10 people were killed in the Sept. 26-27 crackdown and 2,100 were detained. But dissident groups put the death toll at more than 200 and the number of detainees at nearly 6,000.

The U.N. special envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, said the military government's new willingness to hold talks with detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi marked "an hour of historic opportunity."

"This is a potentially welcome development which calls for maximum flexibility on all sides," Gambari said, briefing the U.N. Security Council about his four-day visit to Myanmar.

On Thursday, Myanmar's military ruler, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, said he was prepared to meet with Suu Kyi if she stopped supporting international sanctions against the country.

The United States and the European Union have issued some sanctions against Myanmar's junta, but China and Russia have ruled out any Security Council action.

Diplomats and opposition figures were skeptical that Than Shwe's offer was genuine but expressed hope that the meeting with Suu Kyi would take place. The two have not met since 2002.

Shari Villarosa, the acting U.S. ambassador to Myanmar, flew to the remote capital of Naypyitaw on Friday for a rare meeting with the deputy foreign minister, but U.S. officials said the meeting was not productive.

"What she heard in private was not very different than what we hear from the government in public," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

The state media said troops searched 18 monasteries where alleged rogue monks were living. Initially, authorities detained 513 monks, one novice, 167 men and 30 women lay disciples from the monasteries, but most were released, it said.

Only 109 monks and nine other men are still being questioned, it said.

A government official met senior Buddhist monks Friday in Yangon, the country's main city, and asked them to "expose four monks who are at large," the report said.

The visit aimed to show ordinary people that the ruling generals still had high regard for the Buddhist clergy, despite targeting monks in the crackdown.

Older abbots are more closely tied to the junta, while younger monks are seen as more sympathetic to the pro-democracy protesters. Hundreds of monks were sent back to their hometowns this week from monasteries in Yangon. It was not known who ordered them out of the city — the abbots or the government.

Security forces also claimed to have seized nonreligious material from the monasteries, including pornographic videos, literature from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, and headbands with a swastika or a U.S. flag.

The official report also said a body found floating in Pazundaung Creek in eastern Yangon last week was not that of a monk — as claimed by a dissident group — but a man "with a piece of saffron robe tied round his neck."

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a Thailand-based dissident group, said Friday that more than 250 protests have taken place in Myanmar since Aug. 19.

Life in Yangon was slowly returning to normal but security remained tight downtown. A half-dozen military trucks were stationed near the Sule Pagoda, a flash point of the unrest.

The typically busy area around the city's famed Shwedagon Pagoda was eerily quiet, and seven fire engines with water hoses remained parked in the compound.

Elsewhere in the city, schools, classes and stores were all open.

In Geneva, the head of the U.N. telecommunications agency criticized the junta's decision to block access to the Internet during the protests.

"No government has the right to cut off its citizens from cyberspace," said Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union.

Dissidents and foreigners had used the Internet to get word out of the government's brutal crackdown. Internet service was spotty Friday in Yangon.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962. The current junta came to power after routing a 1988 pro-democracy uprising, killing at least 3,000 people. Suu Kyi's party won elections in 1990 but the junta refused to accept the results.

Suu Kyi, who has spent nearly 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest, won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her democracy campaign.

Fri Oct 5, 11:23 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS - Western powers circulated a draft statement on Myanmar to the U.N. Security Council on Friday that condemned repression by the junta and demanded it free political detainees and begin a dialogue with the opposition.

The draft came hours after a report to the 15-member council on Friday morning by U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who warned the Myanmar government of serious consequences of its actions.

Drafted by the United States, Britain and France, the statement said a return to the situation before the past weeks of demonstrations by pro-democracy activists and their forcible suppression by the military government would be unacceptable.

The draft, obtained by Reuters, condemned Myanmar's "violent repression ... of peaceful demonstrations" and called on authorities to "cease repressive measures."

Security Council statements have to be unanimous, so the draft will need to be approved by, among others, China, which has in the past blocked U.N. action against Myanmar.

Diplomats said experts from council member states would discuss the text on Monday, which could lead to changes.

Unlike a resolution, a statement has no legal force. But if a strongly worded text were approved by China, until now Myanmar's closest ally on the council, it would send a forceful message to the junta.

China and the United States clashed over whether the international community should take any action through the U.N. Security Council, with Beijing insisting the crisis was an internal affair.

Gambari, addressing the Security Council after a four-day visit to Myanmar, called for the release of all political prisoners there and voiced concern at reports of continuing government abuses after last week's huge protests.

"Of great concern to the United Nations and the international community are the continuing and disturbing reports of abuses being committed by security and non-uniformed elements, particularly at night during curfew, including raids on private homes, beatings, arbitrary arrests, and disappearances," Gambari told the council.

He said the Myanmar government must recognize that its ruthless crackdown on Buddhist monk-led protests that grew to 100,000 strong in Yangon "can have serious international repercussions."

The United States said it would propose sanctions at the 15-member council if Myanmar did not "respond constructively" to international concerns, but success seemed unlikely with veto-wielding China firmly opposed to such action.

In a warning to the world body, Myanmar urged the United Nations to take no action that would harm its "good offices" role in defusing the crisis there.

OPPOSITION DISMISSES OFFER

State television in Myanmar, the former Burma, said the junta was hunting four monks it accused of leading the biggest anti-government protests in nearly 20 years in the main city, Yangon.

MRTV said more than 400 monks and 188 men and women had been freed since they were detained in raids by troops and police on 18 Buddhist monasteries in and around Yangon last week.

The opposition in Yangon dismissed the junta's offer of talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as effectively asking her to abandon the campaign for democracy that has kept her in detention for 12 of the last 18 years.

"They are asking her to confess to offenses that she has not committed," said Nyan Win, spokesman for the Nobel peace laureate's National League for Democracy, whose landslide election victory in 1990 was ignored by the generals.

Than Shwe, head of the latest junta in 45 unbroken years of military rule of the former Burma, set out his conditions for direct talks at a meeting with Gambari on Tuesday, state-run television said. It said Suu Kyi must abandon "confrontation," give up "obstructive measures" and support for sanctions and "utter devastation," a phrase it did not explain.

Nyan Win demanded Suu Kyi be allowed to respond in public.

People who applauded the protest marches could face two to five years in jail, said Win Min, who fled to Thailand in 1988 as the army crushed an uprising at the cost of around 3,000 lives. Leaders could face 20 years, he said.

A leader of the Buddhist monks who have led street protests in Myanmar urged Americans on Friday to press for more international action to pressure the military junta into dialogue with the opposition.

Speaking by phone from an undisclosed location in Myanmar to a public meeting at the Asia Society in New York, the monk identified by organizers as "U Gambira," a name he took as leader of a group calling itself the All Burma Monks Alliance, was quoted as saying, "The military junta is still arresting people at the Buddhist monasteries every night and every day.

Fri Oct 5, 11:23 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS - Western powers circulated a draft statement on Myanmar to the U.N. Security Council on Friday that condemned repression by the junta and demanded it free political detainees and begin a dialogue with the opposition.

The draft came hours after a report to the 15-member council on Friday morning by U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who warned the Myanmar government of serious consequences of its actions.

Drafted by the United States, Britain and France, the statement said a return to the situation before the past weeks of demonstrations by pro-democracy activists and their forcible suppression by the military government would be unacceptable.

The draft, obtained by Reuters, condemned Myanmar's "violent repression ... of peaceful demonstrations" and called on authorities to "cease repressive measures."

Security Council statements have to be unanimous, so the draft will need to be approved by, among others, China, which has in the past blocked U.N. action against Myanmar.

Diplomats said experts from council member states would discuss the text on Monday, which could lead to changes.

Unlike a resolution, a statement has no legal force. But if a strongly worded text were approved by China, until now Myanmar's closest ally on the council, it would send a forceful message to the junta.

China and the United States clashed over whether the international community should take any action through the U.N. Security Council, with Beijing insisting the crisis was an internal affair.

Gambari, addressing the Security Council after a four-day visit to Myanmar, called for the release of all political prisoners there and voiced concern at reports of continuing government abuses after last week's huge protests.

"Of great concern to the United Nations and the international community are the continuing and disturbing reports of abuses being committed by security and non-uniformed elements, particularly at night during curfew, including raids on private homes, beatings, arbitrary arrests, and disappearances," Gambari told the council.

He said the Myanmar government must recognize that its ruthless crackdown on Buddhist monk-led protests that grew to 100,000 strong in Yangon "can have serious international repercussions."

The United States said it would propose sanctions at the 15-member council if Myanmar did not "respond constructively" to international concerns, but success seemed unlikely with veto-wielding China firmly opposed to such action.

In a warning to the world body, Myanmar urged the United Nations to take no action that would harm its "good offices" role in defusing the crisis there.

OPPOSITION DISMISSES OFFER

State television in Myanmar, the former Burma, said the junta was hunting four monks it accused of leading the biggest anti-government protests in nearly 20 years in the main city, Yangon.

MRTV said more than 400 monks and 188 men and women had been freed since they were detained in raids by troops and police on 18 Buddhist monasteries in and around Yangon last week.

The opposition in Yangon dismissed the junta's offer of talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as effectively asking her to abandon the campaign for democracy that has kept her in detention for 12 of the last 18 years.

"They are asking her to confess to offenses that she has not committed," said Nyan Win, spokesman for the Nobel peace laureate's National League for Democracy, whose landslide election victory in 1990 was ignored by the generals.

Than Shwe, head of the latest junta in 45 unbroken years of military rule of the former Burma, set out his conditions for direct talks at a meeting with Gambari on Tuesday, state-run television said. It said Suu Kyi must abandon "confrontation," give up "obstructive measures" and support for sanctions and "utter devastation," a phrase it did not explain.

Nyan Win demanded Suu Kyi be allowed to respond in public.

People who applauded the protest marches could face two to five years in jail, said Win Min, who fled to Thailand in 1988 as the army crushed an uprising at the cost of around 3,000 lives. Leaders could face 20 years, he said.

A leader of the Buddhist monks who have led street protests in Myanmar urged Americans on Friday to press for more international action to pressure the military junta into dialogue with the opposition.

Speaking by phone from an undisclosed location in Myanmar to a public meeting at the Asia Society in New York, the monk identified by organizers as "U Gambira," a name he took as leader of a group calling itself the All Burma Monks Alliance, was quoted as saying, "The military junta is still arresting people at the Buddhist monasteries every night and every day.

Fri Oct 5, 6:11 PM ET

NEW YORK - Actor Jim Carrey urged the U.N. Security Council on Friday to ban all international arms shipments to Myanmar to pressure the country to end its brutal suppression of pro-democracy protesters and its detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"This is a government that uses its weapons not in self defense, but against its own citizens," the actor/comedian told a news conference across the street from the United Nations.

"The time has come for the United Nations Security Council to start acting less like a group of corporations and more like united nations," he said, urging China and Russia -- Security Council members that have been resistant to sanctions -- as well as India to back the ban.

Last week, monks led protests of up to 100,000 people in Myanmar's largest city Yangon and elsewhere. The marches were halted by security forces who raided monasteries, imposed curfews, and killed 10 people, by the official count.

Carrey's speech was a precursor to a day of marches and protests planned by the U.S. Campaign for Burma.

He also made an appeal to Than Shwe, head of the latest junta in 45 unbroken years of military rule of the former Burma: "There is nothing to defend if you have lost the faith of your people. It is already over."

Carrey is best known for his comic roles in movies like "Dumb and Dumber" and "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective."

Fri Oct 5, 5:02 PM ET

YANGON - Myanmar's military regime Friday broadcast rare footage of detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on state television for the first time in at least four years.

The junta also said it had freed hundreds of detained monks, and it restored Internet access after a week, steps that appeared aimed at appeasing world opinion as the generals came under strong attack at the United Nations over their crackdown on pro-democracy protestors.

The TV report showed Aung San Suu Kyi with UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari and said he met the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) twice and held talks with regime leader General Than Shwe during his four-day visit this week.

Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has spent most of the past 18 years under house arrest, and her image has not appeared in state media since before her last period of detention started in 2003.

The junta has said Than Shwe was ready for a face-to-face meeting with her, provided she first drops her call for sanctions against the country, and an NLD spokesman said she was looking positively at the offer of dialogue.

The TV report -- broadcast as UN members were discussing Myanmar's crackdown on protesters -- referred to her as "Daw Aung San Suu Kyi," using a respectful form of address, rather than just her name, as was common in the past.

Aung San Suu Kyi, 62, whose NLD won 1990 elections but was never allowed to govern, continues to symbolise the nation's democratic aspirations.

The regime also admitted that security forces last week raided 18 monasteries and jailed more than 700 people -- part of the more than 2,000 people detained in the sweep -- but said only 109 monks now remain in custody.

Buddhist monks were at the vanguard of the largest anti-regime protests that Myanmar, also known as Burma, has seen in almost 20 years before they were crushed last week, leaving at least 13 people dead.

The state media report said Gambari had told Myanmar "to find a political solution by avoiding a violent crackdown," to pull back troops and end an overnight curfew, and to "start solid steps for the democracy process."

He had also asked that the International Committee for the Red Cross be allowed to meet with the detainees and that all political prisoners be released as soon as possible, state media said in unusually detailed reporting.

Culture Minister Khin Aung Myint, a regime spokesman, had replied that the protests were "not in a democratic way," that the protesters were only detained for investigation, and that "there are no political prisoners in Myanmar."

Myanmar was under the spotlight at the United Nations over the bloody crackdown last week, images of which have horrified the world.

Gambari, in his report to the UN Security Council, warned the generals that their crackdown "can have serious international repercussions."

"No country can afford to act in isolation from the standards by which all members of the international community are held," he said.

After a closed-door session with council members, Gambari told reporters his visit may well have created "a window of opportunity" for progress towards national reconciliation.

Taking a more hardline stance, US ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad told the council that "the people of Burma (Myanmar) must not be let down."

Washington was prepared to introduce a sanctions resolution if Myanmar's military regime failed to cooperate with Gambari, he said.

But envoy Wang Guangya from China, which has close ties with Myanmar and favours constructive engagement with its military regime, warned putting pressure on the junta "would lead to confrontation."

China has already opposed UN sanctions when in January in a rare double move with Russia it vetoed a draft US-sponsored resolution urging Myanmar's rulers to free all political detainees and end sexual violence by the military.

Rights groups have called for a global day of protests on Saturday over the crackdown on peaceful protests demonstrations in Myanmar.

Events are to take place at midday local time, and have already been scheduled in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Britain and the United States.

Fri Oct 5, 3:49 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS - A U.N. envoy warned Myanmar on Friday of international consequences from its brutal suppression of pro-democracy protesters, and detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party dismissed the junta's offer of talks as a surrender demand.

But China and the United States clashed over whether the international community should take any action through the U.N. Security Council, with Beijing insisting the crisis was an internal affair.

Ibrahim Gambari, addressing the Security Council after a four-day visit to Myanmar, called for the release of all political prisoners there and voiced concern at reports of continuing government abuses after last week's huge protests.

"Of great concern to the United Nations and the international community are the continuing and disturbing reports of abuses being committed by security and non-uniformed elements, particularly at night during curfew, including raids on private homes, beatings, arbitrary arrests, and disappearances," Gambari told the council.

He said the Myanmar government must recognize that its ruthless crackdown on Buddhist monk-led protests that grew to 100,000 strong in Yangon "can have serious international repercussions."

The United States said it would propose sanctions at the 15-member council if Myanmar did not "respond constructively" to international concerns, but success seemed unlikely with veto-wielding China firmly opposed to such action.

In a warning to the world body, Myanmar urged the United Nations to take no action that would harm its "good offices" role in defusing the crisis there.

The opposition in Yangon dismissed the junta's offer of talks with Suu Kyi as effectively asking her to abandon the campaign for democracy that has kept her in detention for 12 of the last 18 years.

"They are asking her to confess to offenses that she has not committed," said Nyan Win, spokesman for the Nobel peace laureate's National League for Democracy, whose landslide election victory in 1990 was ignored by the generals.

Than Shwe, head of the latest junta in 45 unbroken years of military rule of the former Burma, set out his conditions for direct talks at a meeting with Gambari on Tuesday, state-run television said. It said Suu Kyi must abandon "confrontation," give up "obstructive measures" and support for sanctions and "utter devastation," a phrase it did not explain.

Nyan Win demanded Suu Kyi be allowed to respond in public.

People who applauded the protest marches could face two to five years in jail, said Win Min, who fled to Thailand in 1988 as the army crushed an uprising at the cost of around 3,000 lives. Leaders could face 20 years, he said.

The Norway-based opposition Democratic Voice of Burma quoted relatives as saying about 50 students who demonstrated in Mandalay had been sentenced to five years hard labor.

HIGHER CASUALTIES

Gambari, addressing an open meeting of the Security Council whose audience included around a dozen Buddhist monks in robes, said there were unconfirmed reports that casualties were much higher than the handful reported by the government.

The junta says 10 people were killed in the crackdown on the biggest challenge to the junta in nearly 20 years, though Western governments say the toll is likely to be far higher.

Nevertheless, Gambari told reporters he saw a "window of opportunity" in possible talks between the government and Suu Kyi and he hoped to return to Myanmar before a scheduled date of mid-November.

He said a number of points "emerged by real consensus" in the council, including support for his efforts and resolve that Myanmar could not return to the "status quo" prevailing before recent pro-democracy protests.

"We can't go back to the situation before the recent crisis," he said.

Addressing the Council, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for "bold actions" by the military government toward democratization and respect for human rights.

China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya, however, reiterated Beijing's view that Myanmar posed no threat to international peace and security, a condition for Security Council action. China borders Myanmar and is one of the country's few allies and major trading partners.

Pressure, he said, "will not help address the problem but might lead to mistrust and confrontation."

Myanmar's U.N. Ambassador Kyaw Tint Swe urged the world body not to take action in the Security Council and said many of those detained had now been released.

"To date ... a total of 2,095 people, including 722 monks, have been released," he said. "More releases will follow."

Despite China's opposition, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Washington was prepared to introduce a resolution in the Security Council imposing sanctions.

"We must all be prepared to consider measures such as arms embargoes," Khalilzad told the council.

Western diplomats said they would try to draft a statement next week that the whole council could approve.

In Washington, the United States called on the junta to talk to Suu Kyi without conditions and U.S. charge d'affaires Shari Villarosa went to the new capital, Naypyidaw, to urge it to begin a "meaningful dialogue" with opposition groups.

"It was not a terribly edifying meeting from our perspective," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, adding that Villarosa's meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint produced no breakthroughs.

Fri Oct 5, 3:31 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The United States warned Myanmar Friday it would push for UN sanctions against the junta if it fails to cooperate with a UN envoy, despite signs Beijing would again oppose any such move.

"If the Burmese regime does not respond constructively to the demands of the international community in a timely manner, the United States is prepared to introduce a resolution in the Security Council imposing sanctions," US Ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, told the UN Security Council.

All council members must be prepared "to consider measures such as arms embargoes to convince the ruling junta to cooperate with (UN special envoy Ibrahim) Gambari," he said.

"It is time for the council to do more than simply listen to a briefing," the US envoy said.

But China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya countered that putting pressure on Myanmar's military rulers to achieve greater democratization "would only lead to confrontation."

"It is quite understandable for the outside world to express concern or expectations regarding the situation on the ground," he told the 15-member council.

"However pressure would not serve any purpose and would only lead to confrontation, or even the loss of dialogue, between Myanmar and the international community."

Khalilzad insisted "the eyes of the world are focused on Burma" and urged greater efforts to support moves by UN chief Ban Ki-moon "to establish a genuine political dialogue between the regime and all parties to condemn the deplorable repression of peaceful demonstrators and to call on the Burmese regime to release detainees and political prisoners."

Khalilzad was sepaking after Gambari delivered a report on his recent four-day mission to Myanmar to try to defuse the crisis sparked by the military regime's crackdown on anti-government protests.

He urged Gambari to return to the region "as soon as possible" to continue his intensive diplomatic efforts, and called on "all governments with influence with the (Myanmar) regime to support his return and his mission."

In Washington, the State Department said talks on Friday between the top US diplomat in Myanmar and the Southeast Asian nation's junta over the crackdown did not prove productive.

"It was a not a terribly edifying meeting from our perspective," department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

US charge de affairs in Yangon Shari Villarosa met with a deputy foreign minister from the Myanmar military regime in the junta's administrative capital Naypyidaw in the first such high-level talks since the crackdown.

"From the sketchy readout I have of it, what she heard in private wasn't much different than what you hear from the government in public and our views on their interpretation of events is well known," McCormack said.

At least 13 people are reported to have been killed and more than 2,000 people were arrested in the military crackdown on last week's peaceful pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks.

Myanmar Foreign Minister U Nyan Win defended his government's crackdown at the UN General Assembly on Monday, blaming the turmoil on "political opportunists" backed by "powerful countries," which he did not name.

But the US view is that the brutal suppression against peaceful protestors is "disgraceful," McCormack said.

The meeting between Villarosa and the junta came as Myanmar's state media reported Thursday that military strongman Senior General Than Shwe would be willing to meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi if she met several conditions, including ending support for sanctions on the regime.

The United States has been spearheading political, economic and diplomatic sanctions on the military regime, including a ban on investment and imports.

McCormack said there was no indication from Friday's meeting of any upcoming meaningful dialogue between the junta and Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, currently under house arrest.

Fri Oct 5, 3:14 PM ET

MAE SOT, Thailand - Thet Oo says his military interrogators in Myanmar kicked him in the head until he blacked out, shackled his polio-ridden legs, and then threw him in a tiny, dark cell where he spent much of the next 12 years.

"They treat people like animals," said the 46-year-old, one of dozens of former political prisoners who have fled across the border to Thailand.

He and others recounted this week how they were imprisoned and tortured by Myanmar's military regime for their pro-democracy activities.

Oo was a security guard for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi before she was placed under house arrest in 1989. Her party won national elections the next year, but the junta did not recognize the results and began rounding up her supporters.

Oo was detained and brought before his interrogators, who reeked of alcohol, and was beaten so badly that he lost most of his hearing.

As Myanmar's security forces cracked down on demonstrators last week, former prisoners said they were sickened by televised images of Buddhist monks and students being chased down, bludgeoned with batons and loaded onto police trucks.

"I'm so worried for them," Oo told an Associated Press reporter and television crew traveling through this remote border region in northern Thailand.

Myanmar's military government has repeatedly denied using torture or abusing its prisoners.

A group of political prisoners is collecting evidence, including lists of jailers and torturers, to give to human rights organizations.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, comprised of around 100 former inmates, has already put out one report on torture in Myanmar. It described homosexual rape, electric shocks to the genitals, partial suffocation by water, burning of flesh with hot wax, and being made to stand for hours in tubs of urine and feces.

The government said 10 people were killed and nearly 2,100 arrested in last week's demonstrations, with 700 later released. Diplomats and dissidents say the death toll is likely much higher and up to 6,000 people were seized, including hundreds of monks who led the protests.

Some were brought to Yangon's notorious Insein prison. Witnesses said others were held in university buildings and an old horse track for questioning.

Those who have been released so far have been too frightened to speak out about their treatment. One man detained for five days, however, said he was not allowed to contact his family, had no bed, and did not get enough to eat.

Myanmar's military seized power in 1962, ending an experiment in democracy and leading the resource-rich nation toward isolation and economic ruin. The current junta has been in power since 1988, when it crushed pro-democracy demonstrations.

Myo Myint, who lost a leg, an arm and an eye while fighting as a soldier for the Myanmar government, was arrested in 1989 after he quit the army and switched his loyalty to the pro-democracy movement.

He says his interrogators stripped him naked and tied him with a leather belt to a seesaw, placing him head down for four hours and pouring water in his face as he fell in and out of consciousness. Another time they put a bag over his head and kicked away his crutch.

"I still have nightmares," the 45-year-old says. "I wake up and my whole body is wet with sweat."

Oo Tezaniya, a 42-year-old monk who spent eight years and three months in prison for opposing the government, clenched his hands in the folds of his saffron robe as he told how he was seized in the middle of the night in 1988.

He was brought to an interrogation center, beaten with guns, and then thrown into a dark cell for a month with two other men and no bathroom.

"There was excrement all over the floor," he said.

Tezaniya's heart sank this week when he saw pictures of what dissidents said was a monk's body floating face down in a Yangon river. The junta said in a statement Friday that the body was not of a monk but of a man "with a piece of saffron robe tied round the neck."

"I thought the monks might be arrested and defrocked, but not that the troops would open fire," Tezaniya said sadly. "I'm surprised, even after all I've seen."

___

On the Net:

Assistance Association for Political Prisoners: http://www.aappb.org/

Fri Oct 5, 2:39 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Talks between the top US diplomat in Myanmar and the Southeast Asian nation's ruling military junta Friday on last week's violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests were not productive, the State Department said.

"It was a not a terribly edifying meeting from our perspective," department spokesman Sean McCormack said after the talks between the US charge de affairs in Yangon Shari Villarosa and a deputy foreign minister from the Myanmar military regime, held at the junta's administrative capital Naypyidaw.

"From the sketchy readout I have of it, what she heard in private wasn't much different than what you hear from the government in public and our views on their interpretation of events is well known," he said.

It was the first high-level meeting between the two sides since last week's military bloody crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks, with at least 13 people reported killed and more than 2,000 arrested.

Myanmar Foreign Minister U Nyan Win had defended his government's crackdown at the UN General Assembly on Monday, blaming the turmoil on "political opportunists" backed by "powerful countries," which he did not name.

But the US view is that the brutal suppression against peaceful protestors are "disgraceful," McCormack said.

The meeting between Villarosa and the junta came as Myanmar's state media reported Thursday that military strongman Senior General Than Shwe would be willing to meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi if she met several conditions, including ending support for sanctions on the regime.

The United States has been spearheading political, economic and diplomatic sanctions on the military regime, including a ban on investment and imports.

McCormack said there was no indication from Friday's meeting of any upcoming meaningful dialogue between the junta and Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, currently under house arrest.

"Thus far, we haven't seen any indication of that," he said.

Than Shwe reportedly made the offer to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi during his talks Tuesday with UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who was sent by the UN Security Council following the bloody crackdown.

Gambari, who has returned to New York, briefed his boss, UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon later Thursday and would also inform the 15-member UN Security Council of his discussions in Myanmar Friday.

McCormack said the United States would push for a "strong" presidential statement following the Security Council meeting.

"We believe that a strong statement is merited by the actions of the Burmese (Myanmar) government against the people," he said.

The United States on Friday pressed the UN Security Council to send its special envoy back to Myanmar as soon as possible to work with the junta towards "a peaceful transition to democracy."

Fri Oct 5, 1:30 PM ET

PARIS - French oil group Total has no intention of withdrawing from Myanmar though it will heed President Nicolas Sarkozy's request to freeze future investments, company president Christophe de Margerie said Friday.

"Investing in the country at this stage would be a provocation," he told Le Monde newspaper. "But our investments go back to the 1990s and there have been none since.

"Total will not pull out. Some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) want us to, but others recognise the usefulness of what we are doing," he said.

De Margerie rejected allegations that Total uses forced labour at its gas-field in Yadana. This week the Belgian courts re-opened a case brought by Myanmar refugees alleging human rights abuses.

"Twice already there have been cases before Belgian courts, and twice they have been rejected. I repeat: there is no forced labour at our installations," he said.

Last week Sarkozy urged French businesses including Total to freeze their investments in Myanmar, where the military regime has violently suppressed pro-democracy demonstrations.

Fri Oct 5, 1:16 pm ET

Myanmar Internet Shutdown Is Human Rights Abuse: UN Telecom Chief


GENEVA -- The decision by Myanmar's military-led government to block access to the Internet from within the country violated its citizens' right to communicate, the head of the U.N. telecoms agency said Friday.

Secure access to the Internet is a basic human freedom that "needs to be preserved, no matter what," said Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union.

"No government has the right to cut off its citizens from cyberspace," he told reporters in Geneva.

The Myanmar government shut down the country's Internet service providers last month as part of a crackdown on the biggest anti-regime rebellion in nearly two decades.

Dissidents and foreigners had used the Internet to get word of the government's brutal quashing of the protests to the outside world.

The government says 10 people were killed but oppositions groups say up to 200 people died when security forces attacked demonstrators who were largely led by Buddhist monks.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council that Myanmar's military rulers have to "take bold actions towards democratization and respect for human rights," which observers say are regularly abused in the Southeast Asian country.

"What is wrong in the conventional world is wrong in cyberspace as well," Toure said.

Bloggers from at least 45 countries joined forces on Thursday for an online protest against Myanmar's efforts to keep citizens from sending photographs, videos and reports to the outside world.

Fri Oct 5, 12:00 PM ET

YANGON - Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party dismissed the Myanmar junta's offer of talks as surreal on Friday, as a U.N. envoy warned of "serious international consequences" from its brutal suppression of pro-democracy protesters.

Ibrahim Gambari, addressing the U.N. Security Council after a four-day visit to Myanmar, called for the release of all political prisoners there and voiced concern at reports of continuing government abuses in the wake of last week's protests.

"Of great concern to the United Nations and the international community are the continuing and disturbing reports of abuses being committed by security and non-uniformed elements, particularly at night during curfew, including raids on private homes, beatings, arbitrary arrests, and disappearances," Gambari told the Council.

Gambari also said there were unconfirmed reports that the number of casualties was "much higher" than the dozen people reported killed by the government.

The junta says 10 people were killed in the crackdown on the biggest challenge to the junta in nearly 20 years, though Western governments say the toll is likely to be far higher.

The Western powers have called for the Security Council to impose sanctions on Myanmar, but veto-holding China is opposed to any action by the 15-member body because the junta's crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners was an internal affair.

Addressing the Council just before Gambari, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for "bold actions" by the military government toward democratization and respect for human rights.

"The use of force against peaceful demonstrators is abhorrent and unacceptable," he said.

Senior General Than Shwe, who caused international outrage by sending in soldiers to crush the peaceful monk-led demonstrations, was asking Suu Kyi to abandon the campaign for democracy that has kept her in detention for 12 of the last 18 years, an opposition spokesman said.

"They are asking her to confess to offences that she has not committed," said Nyan Win, spokesman for the Nobel peace laureate's National League for Democracy (NLD), whose landslide election victory in 1990 was ignored by the generals.

Than Shwe, head of the latest junta in 45 unbroken years of military rule of the former Burma, set out his conditions for direct talks at a meeting with Gambari on Tuesday, state-run television said.

It said Suu Kyi must abandon "confrontation," give up "obstructive measures" and support for sanctions and "utter devastation," a phrase it did not explain.

"It is very difficult to see how that will be productive because basically he has asked Aung San Suu Kyi publicly to surrender before the meeting takes place," Georgetown University Myanmar expert David Steinberg told Reuters Television.

"You could say it's a psychological ploy and at the same time it's very clear that the military is not making any concessions."

Nyan Win demanded Suu Kyi be allowed to respond in public.

That is unlikely. The only time Suu Kyi has been seen in public since she was last detained in May 2003 was during one monk-led demonstration when protesters were inexplicably allowed through the barricades sealing off her street.

People who applauded protest marches could face two to five years in jail, said Win Min, who fled to Thailand in 1988 as the army crushed an uprising at the cost of around 3,000 lives. Leaders could face 20 years, he said.

The Norway-based opposition Democratic Voice of Burma quoted relatives as saying about 50 students who demonstrated in Mandalay had been sentenced to five years hard labor.

ACTION UNLIKELY

The United States called on the junta to talk to Suu Kyi without conditions and U.S. charge d'affaires Shari Villarosa went to the new capital, Naypyidaw, to urge it to begin a "meaningful dialogue" with opposition groups.

A diplomatic source said she was to see Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint, who is not a policymaker.

With China, the closest thing the junta has to an ally, blocking action at the United Nations, and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- one of the few international groupings of which Myanmar is a member -- unwilling to change its policy, experts say little is likely to happen.

Singapore, ASEAN's current chairman and a leading investor in Myanmar, said the group would continue its policy of engagement with Myanmar, one which has shown no more signs of influencing the generals than Western sanctions, to try to "help it move forward."

"We have to be mindful of the realities," Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told his country's Straits Times newspaper. "Sanctions against a regime that is ready to isolate itself are more likely to be counter-productive than effective."

The junta says all is back to normal after "the least possible force" was used to end demonstrations which began with small marches against huge fuel price rises in August and escalated after troops fired over the heads of protesting monks.

Fri Oct 5, 11:26 AM ET

UNITED NATIONS - The United States said on Friday it would propose a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Myanmar if the government there does not "respond constructively" to international concern about repression of pro-democracy protests.

"If the Burmese government does not take appropriate steps ... the United States is prepared to introduce a resolution in the Security Council imposing sanctions," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told the Security Council.

"We must all be prepared to consider measures such as arms embargoes," Khalilzad said, urging Myanmar's neighbors to exert the maximum pressure in the meantime to get the military government there to cooperate with U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari's efforts to promote dialogue.

Fri Oct 5, 11:25 AM ET

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown agreed on Friday to keep up international pressure on Myanmar's rulers, and the White House condemned the crackdown there as "barbaric."

Bush and Brown spoke by video link about "the need for countries around the world to continue to make their views clear to the junta that they need to refrain from violence and move to a peaceful transition to democracy," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

In Myanmar, crowds taunted soldiers and police who barricaded central Yangon to prevent more mass protests against 45 years of military rule and deepening economic hardship in the former Burma.

"The crackdown on peaceful protesters there is quite barbaric," Stanzel told reporters.

State-run television said nine people were killed on Thursday, but Brown told reporters British authorities believed the death toll was "far greater than is being reported."

Brown said Myanmar's government had responded with "oppression and force" to the calls for restraint. "The international community must intensify its efforts," he said in a statement issued before his talks with Bush.

First lady Laura Bush, who has taken an active role in bringing attention to human rights abuses in Myanmar, issued a statement condemning the violence.

"The deplorable acts of violence being perpetrated against Buddhist monks and peaceful Burmese demonstrators shame the military regime," she said.

"The United States stands with the people of Burma. We support their demands for basic human rights: freedom of speech, worship, and assembly," she said. "We cannot, and will not, turn our attention from courageous people who stand up for democracy and justice."

Asked whether Bush and Brown discussed the possibility of encouraging Myanmar's people to overthrow their government if protests grew into a full-scale uprising, Stanzel said: "That would be a hypothetical. ... We certainly support the people who are marching for democracy and peace."

Bush announced tightened sanctions against Myanmar's rulers on Tuesday. Brown said on Friday that Britain was pressing for tougher European Union sanctions.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey on Friday unveiled new sanctions that made more than three dozen additional government and military officials and their families ineligible to receive visas to travel to the United States.

Washington "will add others who bear responsibility for the ongoing attacks on innocent civilians and other human rights abuses," Casey said in a statement.

Jeremy Woodrum of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, an advocacy group based in Washington, said Western countries were "getting it right" by tightening sanctions on Myanmar to put the squeeze on leaders.

The next step was to widen bank account freezes to "target their personal money and make sure they can't bring it in and out of the country," Woodrum said.

Fri Oct 5, 11:07 AM ET

UNITED NATIONS - U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari warned Myanmar on Friday of potential serious international repercussions from the political crisis there and urged the ruling junta to release all political prisoners.

Gambari was reporting to the U.N. Security Council on a four-day visit he made to Myanmar sparked by concern over suppression of pro-democracy protests.

He said the international community was concerned about "continuing and disturbing reports of abuses being committed by security and non-uniformed elements, particularly at night during curfew, including raids on private homes, beatings, arbitrary arrests, and disappearances."

Gambari also said there were unconfirmed reports that the number of casualties was "much higher" than the dozen people reported killed by authorities.

He said the Myanmar government must recognize that what happened there "can have serious international repercussions." He said it was time for the Myanmar government to make "bold choices" and he urged it to meet as soon as possible with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Security Council dispatched Gambari to Myanmar in hopes of ending a crackdown involving soldiers shooting into crowds and mass arrests that have sparked international outrage.

China, which has a veto in the Security Council, has said the situation in Myanmar is an internal affair and it opposes action by the Security Council.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the Myanmar authorities' use of force on peaceful protesters was "abhorrent and unacceptable."

Addressing the Security Council just before Gambari's report, Ban called for "bold actions" by the military government toward democratization and respect for human rights.

Fri Oct 5, 9:30 AM ET

WASHINGTON - The White House rejected on Friday conditions set by Myanmar's military ruler for meeting detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and urged the junta to talk to the opposition with no strings attached.

Expressing concern about a continuing government crackdown, the White House also called on the U.N. Security Council to send its envoy back to Myanmar as soon as possible to meet Suu Kyi and the junta to work toward a peaceful transition to democracy.

Senior General Than Shwe, who caused international outrage by sending in soldiers to crush peaceful monk-led demonstrations, was asking Suu Kyi to abandon the campaign for democracy that has kept her in detention for 12 of the last 18 years, her party's spokesman said.

Than Shwe, head of the latest junta in 45 unbroken years of military rule of the former Burma, set out his conditions for direct talks at a meeting with special U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari on Tuesday, state-run television said.

It said Suu Kyi must abandon "confrontation," give up "obstructive measures" and support for sanctions and "utter devastation," a phrase it did not explain.

Suu Kyi's party dismissed the junta's offer as surreal.

"We would hope that the leaders in Burma, the military junta, would not put conditions on a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi," White House spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters.

"What you saw from the monks who were protesting, their very limited call was for dialogue, and that dialogue should be without conditions. We want to see a transformation towards more freedom and democracy in Burma," he added.

With Gambari reporting to the U.N. Security Council on Friday, Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said: "The United States urges the UN Security Council to send Mr. Gambari, at the earliest possible time, back to Burma."

"Reports from Burma that the Internet has been cut off and that innocent Burmese monks and others have been detained, continue to be causes for serious concern and we urge the permanent five members of the United Nations Security Council to take these matters seriously and to act," he said.

Fri Oct 5, 7:19 AM ET

YANGON, Myanmar - The top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar sat down for a rare meeting with a representative of the military government Friday, a day after the junta announced a conditional offer to meet with detained democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

Acting Ambassador Shari Villarosa met with Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint in the remote jungle capital of Naypitaw, according to a senior embassy official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

Villarosa has been a vocal critic of the junta's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters last week. She received word Thursday that she had been asked to meet with the military-led government, the State Department said in Washington. During her visit, she was expected to repeat the U.S. view that the regime must meet with democratic opposition groups and "stop the iron crackdown" on peaceful demonstrators, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington.

Hoping to deflect outrage over soldiers gunning down protesters, Myanmar's junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe announced that he was willing to talk with Suu Kyi, the democratic opposition leader — but only if she stops calling for international sanctions.

Than Shwe also insisted that Suu Kyi stop urging her countrymen to confront the military regime, state television and radio said in reporting on the conditions set by the junta leader during a meeting this week with a special U.N. envoy.

The surprise move appeared aimed at staving off economic sanctions, thereby keeping Myanmar's bountiful natural resources on world markets, while also pleasing giant neighbor China, which worries the unrest could cause problems for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Diplomats and opposition figures were skeptical that the offer was genuine but, nonetheless, expressed hope that the meeting with Suu Kyi — something she has requested for years — would materialize.

Many governments have urged stern U.N. Security Council action against Myanmar, but members China and Russia have ruled out any council action, saying the crisis does not threaten international peace and security.

"This issue does not belong to the Security Council," China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said Thursday. "These problems still, we believe, are basically internal."

State media in Myanmar gave new figures Thursday for the number of people arrested during last week's bloody assault by troops. The reports said nearly 2,100 people had been detained, with almost 700 already released.

The government has said 10 people were killed when security forces broke up the mass demonstrations, but dissident groups put the death toll at up to 200 and say 6,000 people were detained, including thousands of Buddhist monks who were leading the protests.

Life in Yangon was slowly returning to normal but security remained tight in downtown areas where protests were quashed last week. A half dozen military trucks were stationed near the Sule Pagoda, a flash point of the unrest.

The typically busy area around the city's famed Shwedagon Pagoda was eerily quiet, with residents avoiding the area outside the temple where Buddhist monks were beaten by soldiers.

Philippine Ambassador Noel Cabrera described the mood in the country as "quite dark, uncertain and depressed," noting that Myanmar remained cut off from the Internet and strategically placed troops were on standby.

Reaction to Than Shwe's offer of talks was mixed.

Thein Lwin, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, scoffed at the general's conditions.

Suu Kyi "does not have confrontational attitude, nor does she encourage sanctions," he said. Asked if he was hopeful that she would accept the junta's terms for talks, he replied: "We'll have to wait and see."

Democracy activists living in exile in Thailand were also not very impressed by the offer.

"This is just PR ahead of the Security Council meeting," said Maung Maung, a member of a self-styled Myanmar government in exile in Bangkok.

"If they really want to talk, she needs to be released first so she has freedom of association and freedom of speech to engage in a dialogue," he told reporters.

Suu Kyi, who has spent nearly 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest, was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her democracy campaign. Her party won elections in 1990 but the junta refused to accept the results.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962. The current junta came to power after routing a 1988 pro-democracy uprising in bloodshed that killed at least 3,000 people.

Fri Oct 5, 4:49 AM ET

YANGON - Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi will consider positively a heavily conditioned offer to meet the junta leader, her party said Friday, as a US envoy headed to meet leaders of the isolated regime.

The ruling generals made the offers of dialogue as the United Nations readied to discuss the violent crackdown on the largest pro-democracy demonstrations in almost 20 years in the country formerly called Burma.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the past 18 years under house arrest, is a living symbol of the pro-democracy movement that last week brought up to 100,000 people onto the streets of Yangon.

While the top general, Than Shwe, is known to despise her, Myanmar's state media late Thursday said he was willing to see the Nobel peace prize winner if she ends her support for sanctions against the regime.

Aung San Suu Kyi would consider the offer "in a positive light," said Nyan Win, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD). "It's up to Daw (Ms) Aung San Suu Kyi to decide," he said.

The regime extended the rare offer of talks as UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari prepared to brief the UN security council on his four-day trip this week to Myanmar, during which he met both the top general and the opposition leader.

The US chief of mission in Myanmar, Shari Villarosa, was Friday due to pass on a "very clear message" in her talks with the generals to start "meaningful" dialogue with the opposition, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

Villarosa -- whose government has spearheaded global protests against Myanmar -- was invited by the regime to its remote capital Naypyidaw but had received no word on whom she would meet, US officials said.

Aung San Suu Kyi, whose NLD won 1990 elections by a landslide but was never allowed to rule, continues to symbolise the nation's democratic aspirations.

Last week, she was briefly allowed to greet some of the country's revered Buddhist monks before the junta came down hard on the protesters, killing at least 13 people and detaining more than 2,000, according to state media.

The rallies had begun with small-scale protests after a massive mid-August hike in fuel prices but swelled into the biggest threat to the hardline regime since student-led demonstrations in 1988, which were put down in a massacre.

Although the security presence on Yangon's streets has eased, soldiers continue to enforce a curfew and raid activists' home overnight, residents say. Many Yangon monasteries are empty, leaving neighbours to wonder if the monks have been arrested, injured or worse.

Amid this week's flurry of international diplomacy, Gambari was due to brief the UN Security Council later Friday on his four-day mission to Myanmar, but China signalled early that it would block efforts to punish Myanmar.

China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya, whose country, along with India, has close ties to Myanmar, said Thursday that Beijing still regarded the crisis there as an internal matter and rejected the idea of punitive measures.

"No internationally imposed solution can help the situation," Wang said.

India, which has been under fire for its low-key reaction, called for Aung San Suu Kyi's release, saying she can "contribute to the emergence of Myanmar as a democratic country."

Thailand's Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont and Singapore's Premier Lee Hsien Loong agreed to send some foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to Myanmar next month, a Thai government statement said.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also said he would soon travel to the Southeast Asia region to press for change, while Brazil unveiled plans to send a team of observers.

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour, called on Myanmar to allow rights monitors to enter the country, pointing to "pretty alarming" signs of abuses.

Fri Oct 5, 4:36 AM ET

NEW DELHI - India, under fire for its low-key reaction to the violent suppression of pro-democracy protests in Myanmar, has called for Aung San Suu Kyi to be freed, but is not abandoning the authoritarian regime.

India issued the call concerning the opposition leader at a special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on the situation in Myanmar, held in Geneva on Tuesday, according to an official statement released Thursday night.

"The government of India believes that the release of Aung San Suu Kyi would be helpful in terms of the process of democratisation and that she can contribute to the emergence of Myanmar as a democratic country," said Swashpawan Singh, India's envoy to the council.

It was the first time since the early 1990s that India has publicly sought the release of the 62-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has been under house arrest in Yangon for more than a decade.

Singh in his statement described Myanmar as a "close and friendly neighbour" with whom India shares "links of geography, culture, history and religion."

But he said the recent crackdown led by highly respected Buddhist monks, in which at least 13 people were killed, was a "matter of concern" for New Delhi.

However, he objected to the tough language in the Human Rights Council's resolution, which he said could hamper efforts to engage "the authorities in Myanmar in a constructive manner to facilitate a peaceful outcome."

India, which rolled out the red carpet for military strongman Than Shwe in a 2004 visit, was until the mid-1990s a staunch supporter of pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

New Delhi kept the military junta at arm's length after the 1988 crackdown on democracy protests, but changed tack when it decided its security interests in the northeast were in jeopardy.

Since India began engaging the Myanmar generals, both sides have cooperated in flushing out northeastern rebels along the joint border.

A foreign ministry official said although New Delhi had refrained from seeking any information about Suu Kyi in public, during private conversations with Myanmarese leaders it always sought information about her "wellbeing."

Earlier this week, under Western pressure to react, India urged Myanmar to launch a probe into the bloody crackdown and speed up the process of political reform.

A group of US senators on Wednesday demanded intense US pressure on China and India to force them to sever ties with Myanmar's junta.

But in a sign that India was unwilling to abandon the regime, Indian envoy Singh said he regretted the wording of the UN resolution, which strongly deplored "the continued violent repression of peaceful demonstrations."

Singh said the resolution's "unhelpful tone does not contribute to effectively pursuing the objective of engaging constructively with the authorities in Myanmar, which is essential to make a difference to the situation on the ground."

India was always in favour of "promotion and protection of human rights through dialogue and cooperation," in a manner that was "non-condemnatory," he added.

C. Uday Bhaskar, former head of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses think-tank, said India's statement showed it would continue with a "nuanced approach towards Myanmar."

India's call for change in Myanmar would not be "very strident," he said, even though "a lot of people are dismayed that India has taken the realpolitik line for a decade... that we have not been able to balance democratic values and security interests."