More than 1,000 Myanmar people gathered outside their country's embassy in Malaysia on Friday for a noisy protest against the violent crackdown on anti-government protests in their homeland.

Shouting in Burmese and English, they carried placards that read, "Don't kill our monks" and "Stop crackdown".

They also held pictures of Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"We want democracy!" they shouted.

The protesters said they were from Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), as well as from other Myanmar groups including the umbrella organisation, All Burmese Democratic Force.

"This protest is to let the world know that the evil government has cracked down on monks," Kyaw Kyaw Min, who said he was a Myanmar refugee and NLD member, told AFP.

"We would like the international community to stop that. We would like the UN to stop that."

Security forces swept through Myanmar's main city on Thursday, killing nine people including a Japanese journalist, and arresting hundreds more in a crackdown on anti-government protests that began 10 days earlier.

Kyaw Kyaw Min said 2,000 people had joined the Malaysian protest but police estimated the crowd at 1,200.

About 10 Malaysian policemen with riot shields and helmets stood between the shouting protesters and the embassy gate.

In a statement, the demonstrators said they "strongly condemn the regime's brutal crackdown against peaceful demonstrators and urge upon the regime to peacefully settle the crisis in the country."

They called for international pressure on the junta, and demanded the military regime release political prisoners and enter into a dialogue.

Malaysia hosts a large number of migrant workers from Myanmar, many of them illegal.