YANGON - MYANMAR'S junta slapped dusk-till-dawn curfews on the country's two largest cities late on Tuesday after Buddhist monks defied warnings of a crackdown and led 100,000 people in another day of mass protests.

The edict, effective on Wednesday in Yangon and Mandalay, came after the ruling generals - under pressure after eight straight days of peaceful protests led by the monks - sent truckloads of armed soldiers and riot police into Yangon.

'This order was issued because of the protests. Do not organise groups of more than five people,' the announcement said, reiterating a long-time ban on assemblies that has been ignored as the number of demonstrators has swelled.

'Americans are outraged by the situation in Myanmar, where a military junta has imposed a 19 year reign of fear,' he told the UN General Assembly.

'The ruling junta remains unyielding, yet the people's desire for freedom is unmistakable.'

Sarkozy to meet opposition leaders, Romulo calls for change
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday urged the government of Myanmar to respect the widespread peaceful national protests and said he planned to meet with a delegation of Burmese government opponents in Paris.

President Sarkozy did not say who he would meet with, but a news release on the Web site of Info-Birmanie, a Paris-based human rights group that monitors Myanmar, said it would be Sein Win, one of the leaders of the opposition in exile.

'I am extremely preoccupied with the situation in Myanmar,' he told reporters on the sidelines of the opening of the UN General Assembly in New York. 'I would like to launch an appeal that the spontaneous and peaceful protests that express a legitimate political and social claim not be suppressed by force at any time.'

Manila calls for democratic reforms
Meanwhile, Philippines Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said that the military rulers should implement democratic reforms immediately as promised and avoid greater international isolation.

'As far as we are concerned, they have been promising Asean that they will move on the roadmap to democracy. That promise has been repeated so many times,' Mr Romulo lamented.

Myanmar and the Philippines are members of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean), which has taken a soft policy on Myanmar.

9pm to 5am curfew
The new restrictions, which included the 9pm to 5am curfew and the designation of Yangon as a 'restricted area', were announced late on Tuesday via loudspeakers mounted on government vehicles riding through Yangon.

The measures were to remain in effect for 60 days, the announcement said.

Myanmar's military government is facing the biggest public challenge to its rule since student-led rallies in 1988 were brutally repressed with the loss of hundreds if not thousands of lives.

30,000 monks, 70,000 supporters
On Tuesday, about 30,000 monks in saffron and red robes and 70,000 supporters set out from the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's holiest shrine - marking the second straight day the protests had drawn 100,000 people.

Thousands linked hands to form a human chain around the monks, who prayed and chanted as they swarmed around city hall and the Sule Pagoda, while many more bystanders clapped and cheered from the sidewalks in the blistering sun.

'National reconciliation is very important for us. People and monks are gathering here, and the monks are standing up for the people,' famed poet Aung Way said in a speech to the crowd.

Some of the monks chanted 'We want dialogue' or carried banners reading: 'May people's desires be fulfilled'. Large contingents of students joined the march, carrying the red flags emblazoned with yellow peacocks that symbolise the National League for Democracy (NLD) of detained Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Demonstrators paused outside the United Nations office, where the monks called for the democracy icon to be freed from house arrest.

The NLD joined calls for a non-violent resolution to the crisis, saying: 'The only way is through peaceful dialogue'. -- AFP, AP