Australia will not follow the United States and impose economic sanctions on Myanmar because doing so “would have absolutely no impact,” Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.

Downer, who is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, said Tuesday that China was the only country with a hope of convincing Myanmar’s ruling junta to speed up moves towards political reform.

The minister welcomed US President George W. Bush’s concern about human rights abuses in the Asian nation but said the situation was different for Australia which had “minuscule” trade with the country.

Bush on Tuesday announced a tightening of economic sanctions on the military regime and its financial backers and sought global pressure to end the junta’s “reign of fear.”

Downer said Australia had had visa restrictions and a ban on defence exports in place against Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, for some time.

“I think economic sanctions as such would have absolutely no impact except perhaps on the living standards of a number of ordinary Burmese, although we have virtually no, or minuscule, trade with Burma,” he told reporters.

From Australia’s point of view, diplomacy with ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) was the best course of action, he said.

“My view is that China is the country that at least has the potential to have the most leverage over the regime there and whether of course they will be able to exercise great influence is a bit of an unknown,” he said.

“I don’t think what Western countries do is likely to lead to sudden changes of direction.”