There was disagreement round the world on how to respond to the violent struggle being played out on the streets of Burma between the country's military regime and its pro-democracy movement.

Many Western nations were weighing up the possibility of some kind of intervention, possibly through sanctions and diplomatic missions, while Burma's neighbours said that sanctions were valueless.

Most agreed that the situation was grave. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN human rights investigator for Myanmar, said that he feared “very severe repression”.

“It is an emergency,” he said, calling on China - Myanmar's patron and one of the regime's very few friends - to use its influence in a positive way.

President Bush promised yesterday to tighten US sanctions against the Burmese regime and urged others to follow suit. America already bans investment in Burma or import of Burmese goods, despite lobbying from petroleum companies, and refuses visas to the Burmese establishment.

“Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma, where a military junta has imposed a 19-year reign of fear," he told the United Nations. “The ruling junta remains unyielding, yet the people’s desire for freedom is unmistakable."

As news of today's violence filtered through, the tone of Washington's comments became more urgent. “If these stories are accurate, the US is very troubled that the regime would treat the Burmese people this way. We call on the junta to proceed in a peaceful transition to democracy,” said Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman.

The European Union was today arranging to meet urgently to discuss ways to halt the violence in Rangoon. It has already said that it too would tighten sanctions that if the junta used force against its citizens.

“The international community must mobilise to uphold respect for human rights everywhere in the world and to ensure liberty to express people’s own opinions and dissent in a peaceful way,” said Romano Prodi, the Italian Prime Minister and a former president of the EU Commission.

Britain wanted concerted international pressure to be applied through the UN, and helped to engineer a meeting of the Security Council this afternoon.

“The first thing that can be done is that the UN envoy should be sent to Burma,” said Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister. "The whole world is now watching Burma, and its illegitimate and repressive regime should know that the whole world is going to hold it to account. The age of impunity in neglecting and overriding human rights is over."

Human rights campaign groups were all for tough action. Amnesty International said that the UN Security Council must send a mission to Burma, and should consider imposing an arms embargo to stop China and India from supplying military weapons to the junta that could be used against peaceful protestors.

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