Thousands of demonstrators in cities across Europe and Asia joined on Saturday in protests against the military junta in Myanmar after the regime acknowledged detaining hundreds of Buddhist monks who had led huge protests.

While sympathisers from typhoon-wracked Taipei to London chanted and waved placards, activists in Myanmar slipped quietly underground to hold candlelight prayer vigils for those killed and arrested in the ruling junta’s brutal suppression of their uprising.

Hoping to send Myanmar’s ruling military generals a message that “the world is still watching,” rights group Amnesty International organised marches in more than two dozen Asian, European and North American cities.

There were no visible demonstrations in Yangon, where bans on gatherings have been enforced by gun-toting soldiers, but some in the city and elsewhere in the country prayed in their homes at the suggestion of a Buddhist monk interviewed by Radio Free Asia’s Myanmar-language service.

Before demonstrations began in London, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for new EU sanctions against the junta, including a ban on future investment in the country.

The rallies were sprinkled with celebrities. Actor Jim Carrey held a New York news conference to call for UN Security Council action.