The Burmese military government has said it will refuse to grant visas to British government officials with immediate effect.

The move follows a bar imposed by all fifteen European Union states on visits by senior members of the Burmese military and security forces.

The British Foreign Office called the ban an acknowledgment of Britain's leading role against Burma, and said London would continue to press for improvements in the political situation.

Britain has been pushing the Burmese military junta to start talking to the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who triumphed in democratic elections in 1990 but has never been allowed to take power.