Ms Suu Kyi is being held in a military intelligence guesthouse in the capital Rangoon, sources from her National League for Democracy said yesterday, after a clash at Budalin on Friday between her supporters and a pro-junta mob.
The United States has told the junta it expects her to be released quickly. The EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, condemned the junta's "repressive behaviour".
Other members of Ms Suu Kyi's party leadership are under house arrest and its branch offices around the country have been closed.
"The Burmese people have suffered too long, it is time for tough action," said the European parliamentarian Glenys Kinnock yesterday, backing a call by the British-based Burma Sanctions Coalition. "The response to the crackdown must be in the form of UK and EU investment sanctions."
The EU council of ministers is being urged to follow up its April warning to tighten restrictions on Burma unless the regime initiated a "substantive political dialogue" with Ms Suu Kyi. But Germany and Italy want to adopt a softer line.
"The EU's resolution said that if things had not improved by October it would impose sanctions," said Harn Yawnghwe, director of the Europe-Burma Office in Brussels, a group backed by the EU.
"What has happened now is the opposite - the situation is getting out of hand."
