YANGON — Burma’s government appeared to have cut public Internet access and troops occupied key Buddhist monasteries today, witnesses and diplomats said, in an effort to end demonstrations against the ruling junta.

The moves raised concerns that the military government may be preparing to intensify a crackdown on civilians that has killed at least 10 people in the past two days. The Internet in particular has played a crucial role in getting news and images of the pro-democracy protests to the outside world.

Police also sealed off a Yangon neighborhood after hundreds of protesters defied the government’s orders and the violence of previous days to take to the streets. They were quickly dispersed without bloodshed. Elsewhere, witnesses said the streets were mainly quiet.

Southeast Asian envoys were told by Burmese authorities that a no-go zone had been declared around five key Buddhist monasteries, one diplomat said, raising fears of a repeat of a democratic uprising in 1988, when troops gunned down thousands of peaceful demonstrators and imprisoned the survivors.

Gates were locked and key intersections near monasteries in Yangon and Mandalay were sealed off with barbed wire. There was no sign of monks.

“We were told security forces had the monks under control” and will now turn their attention to civilian protesters, the Asian diplomat said on condition of anonymity, citing protocol. Getting the monks out of the way raised concerns that the government would now feel emboldened to take tougher measures against remaining protesters, the diplomat said.

Burma’s neighbors showed their disdain at the violent turn the situation has taken. Demonstrations against Burma’s junta were seen across Asia in Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and elsewhere. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations expressed “revulsion” and told the junta “to exercise utmost restraint and seek a political solution,” with pro-democracy demonstrations held or planned in several cities across the region.

At least 10 people have been killed in two days of violence in the country’s largest cities, including a Japanese cameraman who was shot when soldiers with automatic rifles fired into crowds demanding an end to military rule. Exile groups say the death toll could be much higher.

Daily demonstrations by tens of thousands have grown into the stiffest challenge to the ruling military junta in two decades, a crisis that began Aug. 19 with rallies against a fuel price hike, then escalated dramatically when monks began joining the protests.

Hundreds of people have been arrested, carted away in trucks at night or pummeled with batons, witnesses and diplomats said, with the junta ignoring international appeals for restraint.

America imposed new sanctions on a dozen senior Burmese officials, including the junta’s two top generals, and again urged China as Burma’s main economic and political ally to use its influence to prevent further bloodshed.

But by Burmese standards, the crackdown has so far been muted, in part because the regime knows that killing monks, who are highly revered in the deeply Buddhist nation, could trigger a maelstrom of fury.

Yesterday was the most violent day in more than a month of protests — which at their height have brought an estimated 70,000 demonstrators to the streets. Bloody sandals lay scattered on some streets as protesters fled shouting “Give us freedom, give us freedom!”

Truckloads of troops in riot gear also raided Buddhist monasteries on the outskirts of Yangon, beating and arresting dozens of monks, witnesses and Western diplomats said.

“I really hate the government. They arrest the monks while they are sleeping,” said a 30-year-old service worker who witnessed some of the confrontations from his workplace. “These monks haven’t done anything except meditating and praying and helping people.”

Images of bloodied protesters and fleeing crowds have riveted world attention on the escalating crisis, prompting many governments to urge the junta in Burma, also known as Burma, to end the violence.

The United Nations’ special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, was heading to the country to promote a political solution and could arrive as early as tomorrow, one Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Though some analysts said negotiations were unlikely, the diplomat said the decision to let Gambari in “means they may see a role for him and the United Nations in mediating dialogue with the opposition and its leaders.”

The protesters won support from countrymen abroad as more than 2,000 Burmese immigrants rallied peacefully in Malaysia, chanting slogans of support for Buddhist monks and other pro-democracy demonstrators. Riot police backed by trucks mounted with water cannons stood watch in Kuala Lumpur’s diplomatic enclave as the demonstrators shouted “We want democracy!” and held banners that read “Stop killing monks and people.”

Smaller rallies took place in Thailand, Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.

China, Burma’s largest trading partner, for months quietly counseled the regime to speed up its long-stalled political reforms. Some analysts say Beijing would hate to be viewed as party to a bloodbath as it prepares to court the world at the 2008 Olympic Games.

“China hopes that all parties in Myanmar exercise restraint and properly handle the current issue so as to ensure the situation there does not escalate and get complicated,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing yesterday.

But every other time the regime has been challenged, it has responded with force.

“Judging from the nature and habit of the Myanmar military, they will not allow the monks or activists to topple them,” said a Burmese scholar at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Chaiyachoke Julsiriwong.

New Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda said the death of the journalist Nagai was “extremely unfortunate.”

“We hope the Myanmar government will give us a full explanation,” Mr. Fukuda said.

He said, however, that Japan needs to take the whole situation into account before considering the possibility of sanctions.

Today, Mr. Fukuda and Chinese President Hu, speaking in a 15-minute telephone call, agreed to work together in the international effort to find a solution to the crisis. Mr. Fukuda did not say how the countries would cooperate.