South-east Asian leaders yesterday called on Burma's military regime to speed up its democratic reform process and free political prisoners - demands that reflect mounting frustration at the junta's failure to implement swiftly long-promised political liberalisation.
In a sign of intensifying concern, the Association of South-East Asian Nations will send Syed Hamid Albar, Malaysia's foreign minister, to Burma to assess the regime's commitment to-wards its political reform programme - or what the junta calls its "roadmap to democracy".
South-east Asia's leaders are running out of patience with Burma's generals after years of friendly, behind-the-scenes diplomacy with the regime have failed to yield any substantive opening in the country's repressive political life.
The house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winning pro-democracy leader, has also emerged as a huge embarrassment for the region, which is feeling growing heat from its major trading partners, including the US.
During their annual summit, Asean leaders told Gen Soe Win, the Burmese prime minister, that they wanted "to see progress in respect to the roadmap as well as what is happening in terms of the desire to move towards democracy", Mr Syed Hamid said. "The leaders were very clear that there must be some move - that it should not just be words, but deeds."
The Asean calls came as Amnesty International, the human rights group, said yesterday that the human rights situation in Burma was "deteriorating", with renewed arrests of political dissidents and increasing reports of torture and other abuses.
Burma's military junta this month resumed a national constitutional drafting convention, which the regime says will lead to general elections for a new parliament, albeit one with 25 per cent of seats reserved for military appointees.
But with no time frame for the completion of the constitutional talks, with Ms Suu Kyi still under house arrest and with the National League for Democracy not participating in the convention, many western governments have denounced the process as a stalling tactic.
This is a charge that governments in south-east Asia - which have long defended the regime in the international community - are finding it increasingly difficult to refute.
"We are trying to help Myanmar," Mr Syed Hamid said, using the name the regime has adopted for Burma. "And Myanmar has to help us in order to be able to convince the international community about the state of affairs in terms of democracy. It would not be sufficient to say that the national convention has resumed."
While Asean leaders have suggested Mr Syed Hamid should meet Ms Suu Kyi during his visit, the Malaysian foreign minister said he could not yet say whether that would happen.
A caucus of south-east Asian lawmakers recently pledged to press for Burma's expulsion from Asean if the junta failed to make greater progress towards democracy.
But Mr Syed Hamid said Asean had no provisions for expelling any member country, and was not considering such action against Burma.