Death toll in Myanmar may be far higher: UK's Brown

LONDON (Reuters) - A government crackdown against protesters in Myanmar may have caused far more deaths than the handful being reported by the Myanmar authorities, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Friday.

"I am afraid we believe the loss of life is far greater than is being reported," Brown told reporters following telephone talks with U.S. President George W. Bush and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

The prime minister called for stepped up United Nations efforts and European Union sanctions against Myanmar's military rulers, saying international pressure needed to be brought to bear and the voice of the people heard.

"Now we have seen pictures from Burma and now we can hear voices from the Burmese people, there is no amount of censorship and no amount of violence now that can silence the will of the Burmese people," Brown said.

"That's why the European Union must now move to sanctions, why the Security Council must step up its efforts, and that's why the U.N. must ensure that ... the regime is visited (by the U.N. envoy)."

Nearly two weeks of protests on the streets of Yangon, initially led by saffron-robed monks, have provoked a staunch reaction from the government, with at least nine people reported dead in violent clashes.

Crowds taunted soldiers and police who barricaded central Yangon on Friday to prevent more mass protests against the country's 45 years of military rule.

Potentially deadly games of cat and mouse went on for hours around the barbed-wire barriers in a city terrified of a repeat of 1988, when the army killed an estimated 3,000 people in crushing an uprising.