Respect Myanmar sovereignty, China says after trial

BEIJING (Reuters) - The world should respect Myanmar's judicial sovereignty following the sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi to 18 months in detention, China said on Wednesday, suggesting Beijing would not back U.N. action against the country.

A court in Yangon handed down the sentence to the opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner on Tuesday for violating an internal security law.

Western nations pressed the U.N. Security Council to adopt a statement condemning the sentence, but other countries, including veto-wielding members Russia and China, stalled for time.

The verdict drew criticism from leaders around the world. Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown called it "monstrous." French President Nicolas Sarkozy said it was "brutal and unjust."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu repeated a call for all sides in Myanmar to talk to each other, but requested non-interference from the outside world.

"As a neighbor of Myanmar's, China hopes all sides in Myanmar can push ethnic reconciliation through talks, and gradually realize stability, democracy and development," Jiang said in a brief statement faxed to Reuters.

"This not only accords with Myanmar's interests, it is also beneficial to regional stability," she added, in China's first official comment following the sentencing.

"As for the related domestic case, international society should fully respect Myanmar's judicial sovereignty," Jiang said, referring to the Suu Kyi case.

China is one of the few nations that stands by the military junta running the former Burma, has close economic ties with the government and has invested heavily in the country's natural resources sector, especially in the energy field.

But China has also been worried by the gambling, drug-running and crime that spills over from hilly and isolated northern Myanmar into the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan.

India, another country with strong business links to Myanmar, has urged the generals to speed political reforms, saying it hoped the issue of release of political prisoners would be addressed as part of that process.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)