Brussels, 13/09/2004 (Agence Europe) - Monday's "External Relations" Council formally approved its position (the broad lines of which were already agreed at the informal Gymnich-style meeting in Valkenburg on 3 and 4 September) on Burma's accession to the ASEM process and the forthcoming ASEM summit. Under the text supported by all the delegations on Monday (including France which, following the Valkenburg meeting, where it was not represented by its Foreign Minister, had called for certain "clarifications" on a possible reform of sanctions), the Summit will indeed take place on 8 October in Hanoï, but the representation of Burma in this meeting will be less than that of a Head of State or Government. The democracy and rule of law situation in Burma "has not improved significantly", and continues to raise "grave concerns", according to the conclusions adopted by the Council. The EU notably regrets the fact that the requests it formulated last April have not materialised: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest, the National League for Democracy is constantly harried, and the National Convention has not resulted in a genuinely open debate. As a result, the Council has decided that if the Burmese government had not complied with these three requests by the time the ASEM summit opens, the EU would take the following measures on 11 October (next meeting of the "Foreign Affairs" Council: Ed): existing sanctions against Burma will be toughened and, at the same time support for the Burmese people will be stepped up; -as for the possible tightening up of sanctions, the Council Secretariat has been mandated to prepare the following measures: 1) extension of the list of people banned from visas to a range of members of the army (and their families); 2) ban on companies or organisations based in the EU funding (via loans or capital investments) in public companies in Burma; 3) systematic EU vote against the granting of loans to Burma by international institutions. The European Commission was also invited to present proposals based specifically around the issue of illegal logging in Burma, notably the possibility to reduce deforestation in Burma and to reduce exports of exotic woods (teak) from the country. The ministers also reiterated the need to increase assistance to the Burmese people in the fields of healthcare and education.