UN holds emergency talks on Burma
A monk flees as security forces fire warning shots and tear gas
The UN Security Council is meeting to discuss the worsening crisis in Burma, after police used live rounds and tear gas against anti-government protesters.
The government confirmed one death as the result of their efforts to halt the 10,000-strong demonstration in Rangoon.
Special UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari is urgently heading for the region after first briefing the key world powers.
Correspondents say his mission will be to urge the regime to stop using force and to start moving towards democracy.
The US and the 27-member European Union have asked the Council to consider imposing sanctions and to demand that the generals open a dialogue with their political opponents.
Key locations of Rangoon democracy protests
US President George W Bush has already announced a tightening of US economic sanctions against Burma.
Experts say the hope remains that China - a permanent member of the Council and a key importer of Burmese energy resources - may use its powerful influence to persuade the regime to show restraint.
However, China and Russia have argued that the situation in Burma is a purely internal matter. Both vetoed a UN resolution critical of Burma＇s rulers last January.
The G8, the world＇s eight most industrialised countries, warned Burma＇s ruling generals that they would be held accountable for their actions but stopped short of calling for sanctions.
Analysts fear a repeat of the violence in 1988, when troops opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing thousands.
Clumsy show of force
The confrontation in Burma has become a battle of wills between the country＇s two most powerful institutions, the military and the monkhood, and the outcome is still unclear, the BBC＇s South East Asia correspondent, Jonathan Head, says.
A clampdown on the media by Burma＇s military government - which has banned gatherings of five people or more in addition to imposing a curfew - has made following the exact course of the protests difficult.
It is known that on Wednesday thousands of monks and opposition activists moved away from Shwedagon pagoda, heading for Sule pagoda in the city centre.
The junta are using dirty tactics - they don＇t fire guns but beat people with rifle butts
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Others headed for the home of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Reports suggested they were prevented from reaching it but other demonstrators did gather at Sule to jeer soldiers.
Troops responded by firing tear gas and live rounds over the protesters＇ heads - for the first time since protests began nine days ago.
Monks marching to the home of Aung San Suu Kyi reportedly urged civilians not to join them and not to resort to violence.
But elsewhere witnesses said civilians were shielding the marching monks by forming a human chain around them.
A statement by Burma＇s military government on state radio said one person had been killed and three others injured - the first official confirmation that the violence had caused casualties.
Earlier, a hospital source in Rangoon told the BBC that the monks were beaten with rifle butts, and that taxi drivers had transported the injured to nearby medical facilities.
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Unconfirmed reports spoke of several dead.
Our correspondent says that for all their brutality, the security forces were clumsy.
They failed to prevent demonstrators from making their way through the city and their attacks on the monks only inflamed public anger - none of which was reflected on state television.
Large demonstrations also took place in the cities of Mandalay and Sitwei, but the security forces there reportedly did little to prevent them.
The protests were triggered by the government＇s decision to double the price of fuel last month, hitting people hard in the impoverished nation.
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