EU ramps up sanctions against Mynamar

EU foreign ministers agreed the move -- including widening a visa blacklist and clamping down on investment -- despite criticism, notably, from Japan that the new measures will not help.

The European bloc had pledged to tighten its sanctions unless the Yangon regime heeded its demands before an Asia-Europe (Asem) summit which took place in Vietnam at the weekend.

The Hanoi gathering was clouded by the issue, with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi lamenting that the EU move would do little for reform in Myanmar.

But the EU's current Dutch presidency stuck to its guns. "There has been very little progress and in most essential areas of human rights, there has been no improvement at all," Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, chairing the Luxembourg talks, said last week.

Aside from the continued house arrest of Nobel peace prize winner Suu Kyi, the EU has also decried harassment of her National League for Democracy and a lack of open debate in a national convention launched by the junta in May.

In consequences it agreed Monday to widen a visa ban already in place against Myanmar's top leaders to army officers of the rank of brigadier-general and above, as well as their families.

EU ministers also approved a ban on investment in state-run enterprises in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

According to Yangon figures, Britain is the biggest EU investor in Myanmar, with 1.43 billion dollars tied up in the country in April or 18.8 percent of total foreign investment.

Only two other EU countries have significant investments there: France with some 470.3 million dollars, or 6.2 percent of total investment, and the Netherlands with 238.8 million dollars, or 3.15 percent.

One EU diplomat pointed out that the EU sanctions had been carefully worded to meet French demands that they would not harm the activities in the country of its oil giant Total. "It was very delicate work," he said.

But an EU source said that one previously-threatened measure, under which EU states would vote against loans to Myanmar from international institutions, was not included in the tightened sanctions.