|PIC1|Speaking in an interview with Voice of America, Tutu described Suu Kyi as the “Nelson Mandela of Burma” and the court’s decision was “a total travesty of justice”.

“We know it’s a show trial to try to keep her out of the way so that they can have their sham elections in 2010,” he said.

He called for the release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners in Burma, believed to number more than 2,000, and reiterated a previous call to the international community to try Burma’s leaders in an international criminal court.

"The international community must step in and make sure that democracy does happen," he said.

Tutu added that the ASEAN nations should ostracise Burma and called on India and China in particular to use their strong trade links to exert pressure on the country.

“They have behaved appallingly,” he said of Burma’s military leaders. “After the cyclone they stopped aid reaching people and you think that they have reached the bottom of depravity and you discover they can sink lower.”

Suu Kyi was found guilty on Tuesday of breaking the terms of her house arrest by allowing US citizen John Yettaw to stay at her house for two days after he reportedly swam across Inya Lake to her house and refused to leave. He has been sentenced to seven years in prison, four with hard labour.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a statement that Burma had acted with “total disregard for accepted standards of the rule of law”.

“This is a purely political sentence,” he said. “The UN Security Council, whose will has been flouted, must also now respond resolutely and impose a worldwide ban on the sale of arms to the regime.”

Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said the sentence was “outrageous”. He called on the UN Security Council to impose a universal arms embargo on the regime and establish a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity.

“The charges were fabricated, the trial was a sham and the outcome was almost certainly pre-determined,” he said.

“No one can expect justice in Burma today under this brutal and illegitimate regime.

“It is time now for the UN Security Council to respond promptly to this latest example of the regime’s criminal behaviour by passing a resolution as a matter of urgency.”

Mr Thomas said the UN resolution must spell out clear benchmarks for the regime to meet accompanied by deadlines and sanctions “that will be imposed until there is meaningful and irreversible change”.

He added: “Burma’s Senior General Than Shwe must not be allowed to continue to perpetrate his crimes with impunity.”