BANGKOK - BUDDHIST monks in military-ruled Myanmar have threatened to stop accepting alms from soldiers unless the junta apologises for beating the clergy last week, reports from dissident media said yesterday.

A boycott of alms from soldiers would be a serious protest against the military, since giving donations to monks is an important spiritual duty for devout Buddhists.

The Thailand-based Irrawaddy magazine reported that a group calling itself the Alliance of All Burma Buddhist Monks was distributing a leaflet calling for the boycott unless the junta issues an apology by Monday.

Exiled dissidents have reported that several new groups of monks have formed to make similar demands of the military, but it is impossible to confirm their existence inside the country.

Few monks are willing to speak openly about politics, and the military has cut the phone lines of several key pro-democracy supporters.

Myanmar's influential clergy was enraged last Wednesday when soldiers and state-backed militia beat a crowd of some 300 monks who were protesting in the central city of Pakokku, an important centre of Buddhist learning.

The following day, the monks held a group of 20 government officials hostage for several hours and then trashed a store and a home belonging to militia leaders.

The confrontation in Pakokku, about 500km north of the commercial capital Yangon, came amid a rare string of anti- government protests that erupted on Aug 19 in anger over a massive hike in fuel prices.

The monks and the military are the only groups that maintain networks stretching across the entire country.

Monks were credited with helping to rally popular support for a pro-democracy uprising in 1988, which was crushed by the military when soldiers opened fire on protesters, killing hundreds, if not thousands.

After that uprising, the military held elections in 1990 that were won by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's party. The junta never recognised the result and Ms Suu Kyi has spent most of the time since then under house arrest.

Meanwhile, the ruling junta has pleaded with its citizens to end weeks of anti-government protests and to instead express their views through a promised referendum on a new Constitution, state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS