Japan today condemned the killing of a Japanese photographer during the violence in Burma.

Kenji Nagai, 50, who was covering the protests for Japanese video news agency APF News, was pictured lying injured in the street as dozens of protesters fled from soldiers during the unrest in Rangoon today.

In images taken by other photographers in the area he can be seen trying to raise his camera as a soldier points a gun at him. He died later in hospital.

Just yards away terrified men and women cower and try to escape from a policeman hitting them with a baton as an armed soldier runs past the prone body of Mr Nagai towards them.

In Washington, Masahiko Komura, the new Japanese Foreign Minister, said that Japan holds Burma “strictly accountable for the journalist’s death".

“Something deplorable is happening,'' Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said ''We have to think about what we should do to resolve the situation.''

Nobutaka Machimura, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, said: “We strongly protest the Myanmar government and demand investigation (into the death). We demand (Burma) take appropriate steps to ensure the safety of the Japanese citizens in that country.”

Japanese officials said that Mr Nagai, who had been covering the uprising since Tuesday, was one of several people killed.

According to co-workers Mr Nagai, a Tokyo-based video journalist, lived by his oft-muttered motto: "Someone has to go to the places nobody wants to go."

He was described as unstoppable in his pursuit of a story.

His father, from Imbari on the island of Shikoku, was apparently stunned into silence when told of the news of his son's death.

The death came today as Britain hailed a UN mission to Burma as an opportunity for the military junta to take a face-saving route to a possible political process.

“It’s a political path they are being offered,” Foreign Secretary David Miliband told reporters in New York, where he is attending the UN General Assembly.

Ibrahim Gambari, a UN trouble-shooter, arrived in Singapore today on his way to Burma on his urgent mission backed by the UN Security Council.

Mr Gambari had been invited back to the country in November in his capacity as the UN special envoy for Burma, but he is now requesting a visa for immediate entry.

With China and Russia opposing Western calls for UN sanctions on the military junta, Mr Miliband stressed the importance of Mr Gambari’s mission.

“It reinforces the idea that the world is watching. It’s about pressure really,” he said. “It’s about the readiness of the international community, embodied in his envoyship, to make clear he comes with the full authority of the UN.”

Sir John Sawers, Britain’s UN ambassador, said Burma’s response to Mr Gambari’s visa request would be a good indicator of the junta’s intentions.

“If the regime are looking for a route to some form political process then the Gambari mission provides a good vehicle from them to do it - and one that does not require them to

lose as much face as if they were doing so in the face of Western pressure,” he said.

Gordon Johndroe, the White House National Security spokesman, called for the people of Burma to be allowed their freedom: “The Burmese government should not stand in the way of its people’s desire for freedom. They must stop this violence against peaceful protesters now."

Outside the Burma Embassy in London hundreds of Burmese exiles and British human rights campaigners waved banners, chanted slogans, sang protest songs and prayed for peace.

Many wore red headbands emblazoned with the golden fighting peacock, a symbol of Burma’s democracy movement.

Several held up pictures of the recent street protests in Rangoon and others waved images of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The UK director of Amnesty International addressed the crowd and said: “It is deeply outrageous, what is happening in Burma at the moment.

“That government is on a precipice, and we at Amnesty join in with many others to demand that they pay attention to the human rights of the people of their country.

“We want the United Nations to put this issue at the forefront of their concerns.”

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