All 17 were injured around midday when police baton-charged a group of monks and mainly young protesters near the Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma's holiest shrine, the witnesses said. Among the wounded was an 80-year-old monk who witnesses said was beaten about the head by security forces. The elderly monk has participated in the daily anti-junta protests in Rangoon although he cannot walk and has to be carried.

'World is watching Burma' Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Burma, saying "the whole world is now watching Burma". Brown, whose country is the former colonial power in the reclusive Asian state, added that a UN envoy should be sent to the country to make the seriousness of the situation to the "illegitimate and repressive regime".

"I hope the Security Council will meet immediately, meet today and discuss this issue and look at what can be done," he said. "The first thing that can be done is that the UN envoy should be sent to Burma," he said, reacting after the military junta moved to crack down on protesters in Rangoon.

"I hope he's in a position to go, to make sure that the Burmese regime directly is aware that any trampling of human rights ... not be acceptable in future," he said. "The human rights of the Burmese people are first and foremost," he added. And he warned: "The whole world is now watching Burma and its illegitimate and repressive regime should know that the whole world is going to hold it to account.

"The age of impunity in neglecting and overriding human rights is over." 'The world does want restraint'

Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged restraint from Burma authorities. "The world does want restraint, and it will hold the regime accountable for any actions," he said, shortly before heading for New York to take part in the UN General Assembly. But he acknowledged also the limits on what the outside world can do.

"The direct support that the monks and the students and the people of Burma can have is obviously limited by the fact that it's an extremely repressive regime that's held the country in a very tight noose for so long." Miliband reiterated Britain's support for democracy leader Aung San Sun Kyi, who has become an internationally recognised symbol of non-violent political change since her National League for Democracy won 1990 elections.

"She will know that the world is on her side and a democratic Burma must be the end result," he told reporters in the sidelines of the ruling Labour Party's annual conference in the south coast resort of Bournemouth. Tear gas, shots fired Earlier, troops fired shots over the heads of Buddhist monks and their supporters today as Burma's repressive military junta moved to crush the country's biggest protest campaign in 20 years.

Tear gas was also fired to quell the latest rally, and participants were beaten and arrested after they defied the military's warnings not to interfere in the country's politics. But even as word of the beatings and arrests spread, protest marches continued.

Witnesses said thousands of onlookers cheered as around 1000 Buddhist monks shrugged off the heavy presence of soldiers and police and kept marching toward the centre of the main city of Rangoon. The crowd roared approval for the monks and shouted at security forces: "You are fools! You are fools!" Police and troops then fired a volley of warning shots and tear gas to try to break up the march, witnesses said.

It was one of several demonstrations in the city today, held despite the junta's warning yesterday that force could be used to end what it called illegal street protests. Police charge protesters

Earlier, police baton-charged hundreds of students and monks who had defied a ban on gatherings to rally at Burma's holiest shrine, the Shwedagon Pagoda. Dozens of protesters, including some of the revered monks who have turned the spark of public anger into a nationwide movement in just a few days, were detained during the clashes in Rangoon. Another march headed toward the house of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been held there under house arrest for most of the last 18 years. As they walked, they urged a crowd along the streets to remain calm.

"We monks will do this," they called to onlookers as a few dozen soldiers followed them in trucks. "Please don't join us. Don't do anything violent."

Rally one of 14 There have been fears of a repeat of 1988, the last time huge demonstrations emerged on the streets of Burma to challenge the junta's iron rule. Security forces opened fire, and around 3000 people were killed.

It was not immediately known if authorities were cracking down elsewhere today but the protests have become nationwide.

State media said there have been rallies in seven of the country's 14 provinces. In the western city of Sittwe, about 15,000 monks and people marched yesterday and a resident told AFP another march was planned for today.

"Anything can happen now," said a Western diplomat in Rangoon before the crackdown began.

"There could be a limited crackdown, basically to frighten the monks and the civilians and to try to break the protest movement. "It would be a kind of last warning before the worst."



Today was the first time authorities in impoverished Burma used violence to break up the recent series of protests. Analysts believe the junta had held back for fear that any violence against monks in the devoutly Buddhist nation would spark a huge outcry.

Agencies