China, India key to prodding Myanmar--Indonesia

SYDNEY, Sep 8 (Reuters) The United States and Indonesia believe China and India should try to exert influence on Myanmar, since other approaches to the military-ruled country have failed, Indonesia's foreign minister said today.

Speaking to reporters after his president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, met US President George W Bush on the sidelines of the APEC meetings in Sydney, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hasan Wirajuda said Southeast Asian nations were at a loss as to what to do with their recalcitrant neighbour.

''Actually, all of us in ASEAN have in the past year ...

recognised that constructive engagement by ASEAN has not produced any tangible result. We admit that,'' Hasan told reporters.

Myanmar is one of the 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations.

''Likewise, also the West, they admit that the sanctions and pressure approach do not work. So we are both frustrated.'' Yudhoyono had told Bush it was important to work with China and India. ''Bush agreed that we should talk with China and India. They are two big neighbours (of Myanmar),'' Hasan said.

Bush came to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings with harsh words about Myanmar, which is not a member of the forum, after the junta's crackdown on escalating protests against huge fuel price rises and inflation in the isolated state.' ''We must press the regime in Burma to stop arresting, harrassing, and assaulting pro-democracy activists for organising or participating in peaceful demonstrations,'' Bush said in a speech to Asia-Pacific business executives yesterday.

FUEL HIKE PROTESTS More than 150 people have been arrested in Myanmar since August 19, when activists began protests against an increase in fuel prices that nearly halted public transport.

There was no sign the junta was about to release them.

Instead, it sounded a defiant note, accusing exile dissident groups of fomenting the protests and signalling no let-up in efforts to crush the dissent.

Washington has recently ratcheted up calls for the international community to press Myanmar for change.

China, Myanmar's closest ally which is usually reticent when it comes to the affairs of others, has also sounded frustrated with its southeast Asian neighbour.

Beijing welcomes an international approach to Myanmar as long as it is done with a ''constructive attitude and on the basis of mutual respect'', Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters in Sydney yesterday.

''China is willing to strengthen its communication and dialogue with all the relevant sides, including the United States,'' he added.

The flurry of diplomacy in Sydney came after two days of protests by Buddhist monks who seized 13 government officials and torched their cars in the town of Pakkoku, 130 km southwest of Mandalay.

The repeated outbreaks of dissent, albeit generally small and not swelled by onlookers cowed by all-pervasive security, have been notable for their persistence despite the prospect of long jail terms.

REUTERS SW BST1311