A spokesman for the exiled Democratic Voice of Burma in Norway told CNN the military junta government was living up to its promise to "take action" against the demonstrations, which were in their ninth day.

British Embassy officials in Yangon, formerly called Rangoon, told the BBC of the beating of nuns and monks, and said tear gas was fired into the crowds and live rounds were fired over the protesters' heads.

The demonstrations began government's decision to double the cost of gasoline, prompting the government Monday to ban all gatherings of more than five people.

A New York Times correspondent said troops were taking up strategic locations in Yangon around monasteries and shrines to block marches.

Opposition member Sann Aung, who lives in exile in Thailand, told Voice of America the government waited 45 days in the last major uprising in 1988 before quashing protesters, thousands of whom were killed.