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.