EU looks to China, India to pressure Myanmar

BELGIUM: EU nations on Monday mulled tighter sanctions against the Myanmar government, but many saw China and India as the best hopes of applying pressure on the junta to free opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, spoke in favour of boosting EU sanctions against the regime as the Nobel peace laureate went on trial facing a further five years in detention.

"It's not the moment to lower the sanctions, it's the moment to increase them," echoed EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana as he arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

However other attending foreign ministers and EU officials were looking more for pressure from Myanmar's giant neighbours. "I don't think additional sanctions will help because you have seen they have not helped," said EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

"We have to reinforce dialogue with Burma's neighbors... I think that is the way forward it should always be a subject of discussion with China, India and others," she added.

Brussels,Tuesday, AFP