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BRUSSELS, Apr 24 (Reuters) The European Union will call next week for an international arms embargo on Myanmar's military junta and warn of tougher sanctions if the generals fail to improve human rights conditions.
A statement drafted by EU ambassadors today and due to be rubber-stamped by foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday recalls a long standing EU ban on arms sales to Myanmar.
''The Council would like to encourage the international community to adopt similar measures,'' it says.
A European Parliament resolution passed on Thursday called on the European Union to campaign for a worldwide arms embargo.
It noted the EU embargo was ineffective because the Myanmar military purchases supplies from China, Russia and India.
The parliament also called for broader sanctions to prevent Myanmar's generals using European banks or financial services.
EU governments tightened sanctions on Myanmar after a bloody crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks in September.
Existing steps targeting 1,207 firms, visa bans and asset freezes. The draft statement said they would be rolled over for another year on Tuesday, while adding: ''The Council reiterates its readiness to review or amend these measures or to introduce further restrictive measures in the light of developments on the ground.'' In a resolution passed 551 to seven with eight abstentions, the European Parliament in Strasbourg called for a broadening of the steps to restrict access to international banking services by firms and individuals owned or linked to the military.
It also urged EU states to consider a complete ban on new investment, a ban on the provision of insurance services and an embargo on trade in key commodities that provide significant revenue to the ruling junta.
Groups like Human Rights Watch have been pushing for banking sanctions coordinated with steps the United States has imposed.
US sanctions have the capacity to refuse access to US financial institutions to any financial institution that services Myanmar's junta. Human Rights Watch says it is important to prevent circumvention via European banks.
Myanmar's junta is widely believed to use Singapore as its main offshore banking centre and the United States has called on the city state to sever financial links with the generals.
Today's resolution repeated a call for the release of more than 1,800 political prisoners, including Nobel Prize-winning dissident Aung San Suu Kyi and called on the junta to account for all casualties and missing from the crackdown.
The parliament called on Myanmar's junta to end restrictions on free debate over a constitutional referendum due to be held next month and agree to the presence of international observers for that vote.
The foreign ministers' statement expresses concern that the constitution would restrict eligibility for high office and said only full participation of all stakeholders, including Suu Kyi and ethnic groups, would bring reconciliation and stability.
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