YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's junta on Wednesday lifted a night curfew
that was imposed on the country's two main cities to stifle the
biggest protests against military rule in 20 years.

People ventured into Yangon's streets, a witness said, a day after
authorities poured in security forces to halt demonstrations led by
maroon-robed Buddhist monks.

A prominent actor, Za Ga Na, who had joined the monks on Monday in
urging the public to support the anti-government protests, was
arrested at his home in Yangon overnight, his relatives said, in a
sign of a crackdown.

A bus owner told Reuters that authorities, seeking to avert a repeat
of the past week's mass marches, had ordered drivers not to give
transportation to monks.

The dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed on Yangon and second city,
Mandalay, witnesses said. Loudspeaker announcements also said both
cities would be under direct control of the local military commanders
for 60 days.

Troops and police had surrounded the Sule Pagoda in Yangon, the focus
of two days of mass demonstrations by the monks.

The area around the pagoda was the scene of the worst bloodshed during
a crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 1988 in which 3,000 people
are thought to have been killed.

The escalating tension in the Southeast Asian country formerly known
as Burma gripped the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York, where
world leaders -- mindful of the 1988 violence -- called on the junta
to exercise restraint.

U.S. President George W. Bush, in a speech to the assembly, called on
all countries to "help the Burmese people reclaim their freedom" and
announced fresh sanctions against the generals, their supporters and
families.

The 27-nation European Union said it would "reinforce and strengthen"
sanctions against Myanmar's rulers if the demonstrations were put down
by force.

In another sign of a potential clash, a well-placed source said
detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi had been moved to the
notorious Insein prison on Sunday, a day after she appeared in front
of her house to greet marching monks.

Some analysts said the junta was caught off guard by how sporadic
marches over a sharp hike in fuel prices in mid-August mushroomed into
mass action against 45 years of military rule.

The U.N. human rights investigator for Myanmar, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro,
said he feared "very severe repression."

"It is an emergency," he said, singling out China as a regional power
that could play a "positive role" in defusing it.

DEFIANCE

Tuesday had echoed with reminders of one of the darkest days of
Myanmar's modern history.

Vehicles with loudspeakers toured Yangon, blaring threats of action
under a law allowing troops to break up illegal protests. People came
in huge numbers anyway and, in Taunggok, a coastal city 250 miles to
the northwest, witnesses said thousands of monks and civilians took to
the streets.

Protesters were led in Yangon by 10,000 monks chanting "democracy,
democracy" and, in a gesture of defiance, some waved the bright red
"fighting peacock" flag, the emblem of the student unions that
spearheaded the 1988 uprising.

The streets were lined with people clapping and cheering as the column
of monks stretched several blocks on their march from the Shwedagon
Pagoda, the nation's holiest shrine and symbolic heart of the
campaign, to the Sule Pagoda.

British Ambassador Mark Canning told Reuters two of the junta's
ministers had assured him the protests "would be dealt with in a
'correct' fashion, whatever that means."

The message behind the loudspeaker warnings was lost on no one in
Yangon, a week after monks started to march in protest against warning
shots fired over the heads of fellow monks.

"I'm really worried about the possible outbreak of violence," one
street vendor said. "We know from experience that these people never
hesitate to do what they want."

WARNING TO MONKS

Ethnic Karen rebels on the Thai border told Reuters that troops of the
22nd Division had been redeployed to Yangon.

That division played a major role in the 1988 carnage and the report
lent weight to threats issued by the religious affairs minister,
Brigadier-General Thura Myint Maung.

State radio quoted him as saying action would be taken against senior
monks if they did not control their subordinates in protests he said
were fomented by political extremists.

China, the closest the junta has to a friend, has been making an
effort recently to let the generals know how worried the international
community is, a Beijing-based diplomat said.

China said on Tuesday it "certainly hopes Myanmar can maintain
stability and resolve the issue in its own way" but left it unclear
what kind of pressure it was exerting.

Other countries urged the generals to address the grievances of
Myanmar's 56 million people who, in the past 50 years, have watched
their country go from being one of Asia's brightest prospects to one
of its most desperate.