About 50 demonstrators in Kuala Lumpur today denounced Burma's "sham" talks on a new constitution and condemned Russian involvement with the reclusive country's military regime.

The protesters, from the Malaysian branch of the Democratic Federation of Burma, gathered outside the Burmese embassy before moving their protest to the Russian diplomatic mission.

Their action came the day before the Burmese junta (renamed Myanmar by the junta) was scheduled to open a National Convention, which it says will be the last round of talks on a new constitution.

Analysts have criticised the proposal for a new charter as a tool to tighten the junta's grip on power.

"Stop sham National Convention," said a leaflet handed out by the protesters.

They said the meeting does not reflect the will of the people, "and your draft constitution will be the military constitution."

The military's hand-picked delegates at the National Convention have been meeting on and off since 1993 to draft the guidelines of a new charter, purportedly the first step on the generals' "road map" to democracy.

Last held in December, the talks have been derided by the European Union, the United States and the United Nations for failing to include detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Protest against Russians

The Malaysian protesters, most of them Burmese migrant workers or refugees, called for the release of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

In a subsequent protest outside the Russian embassy they shouted, "Russia out of Burma's affairs!"

Russia announced in May that it had agreed to help build a nuclear research centre in Burma.

Protesters called on Russia to "stop its support of the Burmese military government without further delay."

Burma, one of the world's poorest nations, is subject to US and European economic sanctions because of human rights abuses and for keeping Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.

But the impact of the sanctions has been weakened by the eagerness of some countries to tap Myanmar's vast natural wealth to fuel their own economies.