Brussels - European Union foreign ministers on Monday looked to Asian states to pressure the Myanmar regime on human rights, and said that the bloc was ready to bring in new sanctions as they condemned the "show trial" of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The ministers are set to press their counterparts from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to take firm action against Myanmar's military junta at a May 25 meeting, officials said.
"We have an agreement to investigate more sanctions, we have an agreement that we should pursue the ASEAN track next week ... and we have an agreement that we need to come back to that issue," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said after a meeting with EU counterparts in Brussels.
The Myanmar regime's decision to arrest Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi and commit her to what Miliband called a "show trial" has provoked outrage in Europe and dominated Monday's regular EU talks.
"The trial against Aung San Suu Kyi is an indication of the continued disregard for basic human rights in Myanmar," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
"To lock away and sentence (Suu Kyi) does not bring stability or reconciliation. In this way, the scheduled elections will become a farce ... I expect the trial to not only be postponed, but to be immediately stopped and Ms Suu Kyi be set free at last," he said.
EU ministers were unanimous in condemning the trial of Myanmar's pro-democracy icon, which got under way in Yangon shortly before the start of the meeting in Brussels.
But they stopped short of bringing in more sanctions against the country's regime, instead calling for more cooperation with regional powers such as China and India.
"We should now put more pressure on the countries next to Burma: India, China and the others," Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet told the German Press Agency dpa.
That pressure is likely to come up at the EU-ASEAN meeting and at an EU-China summit which is scheduled for Wednesday in Prague.
The question of Myanmar "should always be a discussion point with China, with India and with others," EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.
One month ago, EU foreign ministers extended through April 2010 a package of sanctions against some 500 regime figures and their families, as well as against some 80 businesses linked to the regime, in a bid to urge them towards democratic reforms.
The ensuing arrest and trial of Suu Kyi on charges of breaking the terms of her house arrest is seen as a slap in the face to the EU.
Suu Kyi, 63, was expected to plead not guilty to charges of breaking the terms of her house detention by allowing a US national to swim to her secluded home earlier this month.
The junta's critics have accused it of using the episode as a pretext to keep Suu Kyi in jail during a politically sensitive period leading up to a general election planned for next year.
Last week, EU member states called her detention a "clear breach of international norms" and expressed "deep regret" over the decision by a Yangon court to formally charge her.
