The Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, spent a fifth day in her car yesterday as the military refused to let her proceed to visit party supporters in a town outside the capital, Rangoon.
The United States, Japan and other countries stepped up pressure on the junta, saying they did not want the situation to escalate and expressing concern over Aung Suu Kyi's health and safety.
The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) accused Aung Suu Kyi of deliberately seeking confrontation and said she was pushing them into "inescapably" reacting.
Aung Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) said in a statement in Rangoon that she and three others with her were running out of drinking water. The statement said the government would be held responsible if their health deteriorated.
But the SPDC disputed the claim. "She's still there. They asked for drinking water and we provided that. But they have enough food and a week's supply of chocolates, bread and other food with them," a government spokesman said.
Security men blocked the car carrying Aung Suu Kyi, another senior party member and two drivers at bridge near Anyarsu Village about 64 km from Rangoon on Friday morning. They were heading for Pathein township, in Ayeryarwaddy division, to meet party supporters.
Negotiators from the SPDC asked Aung Suu Kyi to return to Rangoon, but she has refused and, the government says, is unwilling to negotiate.
But the NLD said: "The news that the general secretary [Aung Suu Kyi] refuses to talk is not true at all... It is groundless since she usually welcomes negotiations."
The government said it was unfortunate the NLD leadership had adopted a confrontational attitude.
Diplomats at a meeting in Manila of the Association of South East Asian Nations, of which Burma is a member, said officials of the United States, the European Union, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, South Korea and Australia had confronted Burma's foreign minister during an informal gathering on the issue.
They expressed concern about Aung Suu Kyi's health and stressed that they did not want the incident to escalate, a US official said.
The SPDC called the US criticism a superpower witch hunt. The government said Aung Suu Kyi was stopped because she did not have her personal security team with her and it was concerned she might be harmed by anti-government elements, leaving authorities open to blame.
It also accused her of trying to foment dissent ahead of the planned reopening next month of universities and other institutions, closed in December 1996 after student unrest.
A defiant Aung Suu Kyi, who has been sitting in the car most of the time with a few short breaks, has refused to budge. Video footage, apparently shot from a moving vehicle last weekend, showed her white car parked on a wooden bridge adjacent to the road where she was stopped.