'A global arms embargo will stop the dictatorship having access to new weapons and new weapons technology that would result in increased human rights abuses in Burma. It will also be a major psychological blow to the dictatorship.'

While Myanmar has started making its own weapons, ammunition and explosives on a small scale, China and Russia remain its biggest suppliers of modern weapons.

'If an arms embargo had been introduced in 1962 when the first dictator took over Burma, the military capacity of the dictatorship today would be greatly reduced,' Burma Campaign said.

After a trial that started in May, a Myanmar court Tuesday sentenced Suu Kyi, 64, to three years in prison and hard labour for breaking the terms of her detention after American John William Yettaw entered the compound of her villa uninvited.

However, the sentence was commuted to 18 months under house detention.