Japan, a leading donor to Myanmar, Wednesday warned it would continue to refrain from major aid projects and appealed for calm as the military regime clamped down on protests.

“The Japanese government is currently encouraging the Myanmar government to take a calm response,” Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura told a news conference.

Japan, in a rare break with the United States and European Union, continues to provide aid to Myanmar, although it says it is only for humanitarian purposes.

“We’re not in a situation to launch any big economic cooperation projects,” chief government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura said separately.

However, Machimura rejected US calls for full-fledged sanctions, saying Japan preferred “constructive measures through our diplomatic ties.”

“America is very strict in dealing with Myanmar,” Machimura said. “I’ve always questioned whether it would make good diplomatic sense to needlessly join the Western countries to slap people around.”

“However, considering the current situation in Myanmar, where the pace of political reform is very slow — for example they’re taking more than 10 years in the writing of the constitution — we cannot fully cooperate in their economic development without any provisions.”

US President George W. Bush on Tuesday unveiled new sanctions on Myanmar’s military rulers and urged the world to side with the demonstrators.

Myanmar’s security forces on Wednesday beat protesters, fired tear gas and fired warning shots into the air as they moved to crush nine days of massive anti-government rallies.

Japan suspended major projects such as infrastructure in 2003 in protest at the continued detention of pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.