(STRASBOURG) - The European parliament on Thursday called for EU sanctions against Myanmar to be increased to include an embargo on commodity imports, thereby threatening the regime's key oil revenues.

The MEPs, whose opinion is not binding, also voted almost unanimously in favour of restrictions to access to international banking services for military-owned companies, conglomerates and businesses linked to the military.

The parliament, meeting in Strasbourg, called too for restrictions for junta generals and their families to "access to personal business opportunities, health care, shopping, and foreign education for their children."

The European Union's current sanctions against Myanmar leaders, adopted last November, include an embargo on the import of timber, gems and metals from Myanmar. It also extended the list of Myanmar leaders and their relatives subject to a travel ban and assets freeze.

However the current EU measures do not touch the energy sector, leaving companies like French group Total free to operate in Myanmar.

The European deputies called for a new embargo on "trade in key commodities that provide significant revenue to the military government."

They also urged the EU to review its sanctions against specific human rights benchmarks, including the release of political prisoners and an accurate count of those "killed, arrested, and detained by the security forces."

EU foreign ministers are to debate the measures against Myanmar at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday and Tuesday, and could choose to broaden them.

The EU's Slovenian presidency said Wednesday that the bloc would probably extend the sanctions for another year.

"Discussions are under way in the council (of EU ministers) for the biggest possible financial sanctions," European Commission Vice President Jacques Barrot told the parliament on Wednesday.

The European parliament called the EU arms embargo on Burma "ineffective", as "the military government purchases its military goods in China, Russia and India."

Therefore the MEPs urged the European Union to "actively campaign for a worldwide arms embargo on Burma."

The Myanmar regime has called a referendum next month on a new constitution which pro-democracy activists say will allow the generals to entrench their rule.

The parliament in Strasbourg deplored the plan, saying the referendum process "is devoid of any democratic legitimacy, as Burmese citizens lack all basic democratic rights that would allow them to hold an open debate on the constitutional text, amend it and subsequently freely express themselves through a referendum".

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