Malaysia and other members of Asean, the regional grouping, are warning its military junta to democratise or lose its chairmanship of Asean next year.

Meanwhile, a European Commission-sponsored report is suggesting Brussels drop some sanctions, engage the regime in talks and ignore protestations from imprisoned Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy movement, which was robbed of a landslide election victory in 1990.

“The military regime in Myanmar is part of the solution as well as part of the problem” say report authors Robert Taylor and Morten Pedersen. They claim Brussels’ hardline policy has failed and, with breathtaking timing, that Asean will not interfere.

The two academics, who have long been in favour of “constructive dialogue” with the generals, have also organised a day-long conference in Brussels on April 5 stuffed with like-minded speakers that will take place behind closed doors.

Burmese opposition groups are livid, and several wrote yesterday to the Commission and national governments to protest.

“Either the Commission is pursuing a hidden agenda which is contrary to the policy of EU member states, or it has allowed this meeting to be hijacked by the small but vociferous anti-sanctions lobby,” one letter says. That lobby consists of those with investments in Burma, such as French oil group Total and British American Tobacco, and the French government.

Geoffrey van Orden, vice-president of the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said: “Weakening our resolve can only give comfort to the regime.”

The Commission says it is sticking with the policy of offering talks but maintaining sanctions. Observer wonders whether such a report would have appeared under former external affairs commissioner Lord Patten, who had experience of Asian dictatorships as governor of Hong Kong.