The ruling junta has threatened to take action against Burma's Buddhist monks who led more than 100,000 people in Yangon in the biggest protest in nearly 20 years.
In the first official reaction to a week of escalating protests state media reported that the religion minister, Brigadier General Thura Myint Maung, had met with senior clergy to deliver the warning.
Earlier thousands of people snaked their way through the nation's commercial capital led by robed monks chanting prayers of peace and compassion.
The protests lasted nearly five hours, ending with prayers at pagodas before the crowds returned to their homes.
About 800 of them stopped to pray near a roadblock guarded by 100 riot police blocking the street to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's home, but they did not try to press their way to the compound where she is under house arrest.
The international community urged restraint by the junta, on the eve of the opening of the UN General Assembly in New York where world leaders are expected to push the generals to adopt democratic reforms.
France has warned that the junta would be held accountable if there were any harsh crackdowns on the streets of major cities.
In a surprise move on Saturday, armed police allowed about 2,000 monks and civilians to pray outside the home of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, long the face of resistance to the generals who have ruled here since 1962.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate stepped outside the lakeside home where she has been under house arrest for more than a decade and greeted the crowd, but riot police have blocked the road since Sunday.
