A key opposition group to the Burmese military government has denounced the sending of letter bombs to several Burmese embassies last week as a "plot" by the junta to join the US-led war against terrorism.

In a press statement, the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB) a Bangkok-based umbrella body of pro-democracy organisations said the letter bombs sent to Burma's embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Japan were intended to legitimise the military government by cooperating with the United States in the anti-terrorism war.

US has been one of Rangoon's harshest critics.

"It is highly suspicious that the letter bombs could be shown at a press conference in Rangoon just days after they had been discovered in the embassies.

"Considering that this was being called an act of terrorism, there was no time for proper investigations to be carried out by the countries concerned," said the NCUB which represents four main Burmese pro-democracy groups currently in exile in Thailand.

Last week, security was heightened at the three Burmese embassies after letters bearing Bangkok postmarks were suspected of carrying letter bombs.

The ruling Burmese party, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), had blamed a "dissident group residing in a neighbouring country" for sending the letters.

Tools to 'manipulate' Thailand

According to the NCUB, the letter bomb threats were also intended to distract the Burmese from political, economic and social crises that could lead to popular uprising in the country.

"The regime is making its preparations to crush the possible people's uprising by naming the people's movement as a terrorist movement.

"Because of general discontent in the army, the regime must create an enemy, thus transforming democratic forces into terrorists," it said.

In addition, the organisation alleged that the military government were creating "tools to manipulate Thailand" into implementing restrictive policies on Burmese dissidents, migrants and refugees residing in the country.

Relations between Thailand and Burma had long been strained due to historical clashes between the two countries and more recently, due to the presence of exiled Burmese groups in Thailand.

Burma has also accused Thailand of harbouring separatist groups at border areas, which occasionally led to military crossfires between the two neighbours.

Blank card

Contacted later, the Burmese embassy's second secretary Myint Thein Win said he was unaware of the NCUB's allegations.

He denied that a letter bomb was sent to Kuala Lumpur while referring to his statements made last week to the New Straits Times.

Myint was reported in an Oct 31 report as saying that a letter containing a blank musical birthday card was sent to an address in Jalan U Thant occupied by the embassy five years ago.

He said the embassy had moved twice since and that police were not notified over the card initially since officials found nothing dangerous in the card.

However, in a similar incident in Singapore, the republic's police spokesperson said its bomb squad defused a letter containing a detonator.