Amnesty International said earlier the junta had arrested a dozen activists and Buddhist monks this month, despite assurances that the crackdown had stopped.

 At least 15 people were killed and nearly 3,000 people detained during the September crackdown. The regime says all but 90 people have been freed, but Amnesty said 700 were still in custody.

The abbot of Maggin Monastery, U Indaka, was among those still detained, The Irrawaddy said.

Monasteries in Yangon remained deserted, Villarosa said, adding that she believed a "considerable number" of monks were detained.

Meanwhile, the U.N. envoy to Myanmar said Friday the junta must free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest if it is serious about reforms.

"Now we are saying very clearly that if Aung San Suu Kyi is to become part of the solution and a partner in dialogue, then it is very essential that she should be released from detention," Ibrahim Gambari told reporters in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh at the end of a two-day visit.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been detained for 12 of the past 18 years.

"Any further arrests of people will run counter to the spirit of national reconciliation and ... to the efforts to promote dialogue between the opposition and the government," Gambari said.

He spoke shortly after Myanmar Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Thein Sein arrived in Cambodia. The two did not meet and officials said the timing of the visits was coincidental.

Gambari is to return to Myanmar next month on his third mission since September to try to push the junta toward reconciliation talks with the opposition.