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WASHINGTON: Global pressure grew on the Myanmar junta on Friday to halt a crackdown on pro-democracy protestors as the US slapped visa bans on the junta's leaders and fears mounted that the death toll could rise.
The State Department announced more than three dozen additional government and military officials and their families would be barred from travelling to the United States.
And spokesman Tom Casey warned the department would add to the list "others who bear responsibility for the ongoing attacks on innocent civilians and other human rights abuses".
The Myanmar junta, meanwhile, moved to shut the country off from the rest of the world by cutting Internet access in the third day of a deadly crackdown.
The Internet blockage severely reduced the flow of video, photos and first-hand reports of the violence, which has left at least 13 people dead.
But British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he believed the death toll in the protests was far higher than reported, as he joined with US President George W. Bush in a renewed plea to end the violence.
Even China and Russia, which have resisted pressure to impose new UN sanctions, have expressed concern at the crisis in the Southeast Asian nation.
UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari was meanwhile in Singapore, waiting to travel to Myanmar amid calls for him to be given access to democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, following rumours that she has been transferred from house arrest to a prison.
Public protesters have shown their anger outside Myanmar embassies across the globe. The UN Human Rights Council called a special meeting on the Myanmar unrest for Tuesday in Geneva.
"I am afraid we believe the loss of life is far greater than is being reported so far," Brown said after videoconference talks on the crisis with Bush and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
Brown said the "international community must intensify its efforts" to put pressure on Myanmar's junta and called on the European Union to agree financial and other new sanctions "as soon as possible".
Bush and Brown expressed "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.
First Lady Laura Bush also denounced "the deplorable acts of violence being perpetrated against Buddhist monks and peaceful Burmese demonstrators".
"The regime admits to killing 10 people, but unofficial reports suggest the number is much higher," she said.
China's Premier Wen told Japan's new Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda that Beijing was making efforts to calm the situation, Japanese officials said.
"The international community should play a constructive role and China will also make an effort," a Japanese foreign ministry official quoted Wen as saying in a telephone conversation with Fukuda.
Russia called for "urgent steps" to "prevent the escalation of tensions" in Myanmar but distanced itself from calls for immediate sanctions.
The Russian foreign ministry said: "Continuation of the confrontation is fraught with serious negative consequences for peace, stability and the process of nation building in this country."
Public outrage over the shooting of demonstrators in Yangon spilled over into clashes between Australian police and protesters outside the Myanmar embassy in Canberra.
There were also public demonstrations outside the Myanmar missions in London, Paris, Geneva, Rome and major Asian cities, and Chile said it "strongly" condemned the violence.
Hundreds of people who gathered outside the Myanmar embassy in Rome included ministers from the centre-left government.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday she had hoped the UN Security Council would have taken "stronger action" in response to the military crackdown.
"Given what is going on in the streets in Rangoon (Yangon), I would have hoped that the Security Council would take a stronger action," she said at the UN after a luncheon with her counterparts from the council's four other veto-wielding members.
The 15-member council met in emergency session on Wednesday but failed to condemn the repression in Yangon.
The 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has traditionally held back from criticising Myanmar, took a stronger line.
ASEAN ministers meeting at the UN headquarters in New York "expressed their revulsion to Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win over reports that the demonstrations are being suppressed by violent force", said Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo.
- AFP/so
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