Geneva: The UN special investigator for Myanmar pleaded with the country's military junta today to engage in a serious dialogue about human rights, a day after US President George W Bush threatened new international sanctions.

"We know that we have a problem," Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who recently visited the country, told Myanmar's ambassador at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council. Pinheiro said he was disappointed by Myanmar's reaction to a report he formally presented to the 47-nation body on the government s deadly crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in September.

The report released last week found that at least 31 people were killed - more than double the number acknowledged by authorities. Pinheiro said the death toll was probably much higher.

Wunna Maung Lwin, Myanmar s UN ambassador in Geneva, said yesterday that "exercising its sovereign right to handle a violent situation should not be construed as a violation of human rights." Pinheiro, a Brazilian professor, said he expected a better response.

"Your government has to make some concessions in terms of recognising some of the points of my report," he told Wunna Maung. "The problem of thousands of detentions of people without a reasonable basis, and the question of the use of force, necessity and proportionality - I didn t invent these."

In Washington, Bush threatened yesterday to campaign for international sanctions unless Myanmar s military leaders heed the world s demands that democracy be restored and political prisoners freed.

Source : PTI