By CONSTANT BRAND,

AP

Posted: 2007-11-19 08:18:54

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - European Union nations increased the pressure on Myanmar’s Asian neighbors on Monday to apply tougher measures against the country’s military leaders to force democratic reforms and talks with opposition groups.

A meeting of EU foreign ministers gave their final go-ahead to implement several additional European sanctions against the Myanmar regime agreed to last month, and left the door open to more sanctions including a ban on the use of European-based banking services to members of the junta, diplomats said.

The measures adopted by the EU last month include banning imports of timber, gemstones and precious metals from Myanmar, also called Burma. The new sanctions come on top of an existing travel ban on Myanmar officials, an arms embargo and a freeze of Burmese assets in Europe.

The EU ministers encouraged its partners in the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the region’s main political and economic bloc, “to use every opportunity … to maintain the pressure for a credible and inclusive process of national reconciliation” in Myanmar.

They added that EU leaders would use a summit Thursday with their Asian counterparts in Singapore to push them to do more to sway Myanmar to end its crackdown on pro-democracy groups.

“We are looking at ways to put pressure on the Burmese regime, in such a way that if it doesn’t respond in terms of the rights of its citizens, the European Union and the international community should be prepared to take further steps,” British European Affairs Minister Jim Murphy said.

A summit of ASEAN leaders in Singapore was also being held this week just before the ASEAN-EU summit Thursday.

The 27-nation EU has criticized ASEAN for not putting enough pressure on Myanmar, which is a member of the grouping, to force it to change its ways.

The EU itself is also under pressure from human rights groups who have criticized the bloc for not going far enough in new sanctions against Myanmar.

Last week, Human Rights Watch called on the EU foreign ministers to adopt stricter financial sanctions to prevent members of the military junta access to Europe-based financial institutions or to use them to move investments or other holdings around the world.

Such banking measures have already been taken by the United States.

Meanwhile, several Asian nations fear Myanmar’s political crisis will ruin a proposed free trade pact between the EU and Southeast Asian nations.

ASEAN and the EU, together comprising a total 37 countries and home to nearly a billion people, agreed in May to launch free trade talks after years of wrangling over Myanmar’s poor human rights record.

Some members of the European Parliament have called for Myanmar to be excluded from a proposed ASEAN-EU free trade pact.

For years, Myanmar has faced international condemnation for jailing pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and hundreds of other political dissidents. But the military, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, has refused to budge.

ASEAN is made up of Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.