UNITED NATIONS — A Burmese plan to conduct a referendum in May on a newly devised constitution — to be followed by a national election by 2010 — was roundly criticized yesterday by the country’s top opposition leaders and the Bush administration, even as the United Nations said the blueprint was a first step toward implementing a “road map” to democracy. The ruling junta’s announcement Saturday, which critics said was designed to ease international pressure against the Burmese government, was immediately met by criticism and skepticism from pro-democracy fighters inside and outside the country.

Monks who participated in last year’s street protests called the new plan, which was devised by the generals who forcefully ended their popular uprising, “a declaration of war by the military regime against the people of Burma.” A dissident group known as the 88 Generation Students predicted the plan would lead to “a major battlefield” between the military regime and Burma’s people.

The White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said the plan was nothing but a “nontransparent and exclusive process being promulgated by the regime.” She noted that the winner of the 1990 democratic election, Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, could not participate in the new election because she is married to a foreigner. A State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, added that the plan was “drafted in a closed process by a hand-picked committee dominated by senior regime officials.”

In a cautiously drafted statement yesterday, Secretary-General Ban stopped short of endorsing the plan, but he said it “marks the first establishment of a time-frame for the implementation” of Burma’s blueprint for ushering democracy. Nevertheless, the statement, released by a spokeswoman, Michele Montas, said Mr. Ban “renews his call” for an “inclusive, participatory, and transparent” political process, and that “any draft constitution is broadly representative of the views of all the people of Myanmar.” The “current situation of the people of Burma under the social, economic, and political crises, as well as severe oppression, imprisonment, torture, and killing by the regime is much worse than before 1988,” a statement by a group known as the All Burma Monks’ Alliance, which was obtained yesterday by The New York Sun, said.

A statement by the 88 Generation Students, named after that year’s street protests, called on Mr. Ban to travel to Burma, but Ms. Montas said yesterday that there was no immediate plan for such a trip. Mr. Ban’s personal envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, plans to conduct another tour of neighboring capitals, starting in Beijing next week, but the junta is yet to grant him an entry visa into Burma itself despite repeated urging from the Security Council and Mr. Ban to do so.