The European Union on Wednesday began drawing up new sanctions against the Myanmar regime, following a police and military crackdown on peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks in Yangon.

After the Myanmar authorities imposed a curfew in Yangon late Tuesday, the EU, spurred by a tough line from Britain, said it would “reinforce and strengthen the existing sanctions” should the Myanmar authorities crack down on the “unarmed and peaceful demonstrators.”

However Myanmar security forces fired tear gas and warning shots and beat protesters with batons Wednesday, hoping to crush the mass rallies that have erupted nationwide against the military regime.

Asia experts from the 27 EU nations began meeting in the morning to see how the already extensive EU sanctions against the Myanmar regime could be further toughened up, a spokesman for the Portuguese EU presidency said.

Under the existing sanctions, 375 members of the junta and their families are banned from entering the European Union and are subject to an asset freeze.

“We could always add the names of people linked to the ongoing repression and who are not already on the lists,” a European diplomat said.

While European countries are already banned from financing Myanmar state firms and an arms bans is in place but “one could impose further trade sanctions,” he added.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown reacted to the crackdown by saying: “The whole world is now watching Burma and its illegitimate and repressive regime should know that the whole world is going to hold it to account.”

Brown called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Myanmar, while acknowledging the limits on what the outside world can do.

“The direct support that the monks and the students and the people of Burma can have is obviously limited by the fact that it’s an extremely repressive regime that’s held the country in a very tight noose for so long.”

On Tuesday he said the EU should beef up its sanctions if the Myanmar authorities resorted to violence.

The Europeans realize that whatever actions they take will not have spectacular, immediate effects on what is already one of the most isolated nations in the world.

“The sanctions are already pretty strong,” said one European official.

“We can’t expect that sanction changes alone are going to persuade the authorities not to use force,” he added.

“There need to be other elements, and notably some serious diplomatic work needs to be done with countries in the region, starting with China and India,” Myanmar’s two large trading partners, said Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

However the diplomatic path takes time and, in the meantime, the announcement of beefed-up sanctions is the only tool available to EU member states to the police oppression.

“Faced with a bloody repression you can’t just do nothing,” one diplomat said.

“The only way to express our dismay is through sanctions.”

By the afternoon the European Union had not officially reacted to the violent dispersal of the demonstrators, which left an unknown number injured.

However the Portuguese EU presidency was expected to intervene in a debate on Myanmar starting at 1300 GMT Wednesday at the European parliament in Strasbourg.

“We condemned the repression in advance and called for non-violent methods to be used,” a Portuguese spokesman said.

“We can only regret that the Myanmar regime ignored these statements.”