More than 100 monks returned to Burma's streets Wednesday for the first time after the ruling junta's deadly crackdown on anti-government protests last month, several monks said.

The maroon-robed monks made no political statements and shouted no slogans during an hour-long march through the northern town of Pakokku, a centre for Buddhist learning about 630 kilometres northwest of the commercial centre of Rangoon.

The town was the site of the first march last month by monks as they joined and then spearheaded the biggest anti-government protests in nearly two decades in Burma, also known as Myanmar.

Reports that troops had beaten protesting monks in Pakokku on Sept. 6 rallied monks around the country to join the growing marches.

Troops fired on protesters in a crackdown on Sept. 27-28 that left 10 dead by the government's count, though Western diplomats and opposition groups say the number is likely much higher.

Protests will continue: monks

"We are continuing our protest from last month as we have not yet achieved any of the demands we asked for," one monk told the Democratic Voice of Burma, a Norway-based shortwave radio station and website run by dissident journalists.

He listed the monks' demands as lower commodity prices, national reconciliation and the immediate release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners.

The monk, who was not identified by name, said Wednesday's march was small because there was little time to organize it, but there will be "bigger protests soon."

The monks began at Pakkoku's Shwegu Pagoda, marched for nearly an hour and chanted Buddhist prayers, two monks told reporters in telephone interviews speaking on the condition of anonymity. One witness told Reuters the number of marching monks numbered closer to 200.

The march followed a pro-junta rally in the town. Opposition groups outside the country claim such rallies are usually staged by the government.

Protests originally began Aug. 19 when citizens took to the streets to demonstrate against the government's fuel hike.

Burma has been harshly criticized for its actions against the protests and a number of countries have imposed sanctions and embargoes.

"I think [the latest protest] will have taken the authorities a bit by surprise," Martin Morland, former United Kingdom ambassador to Burma, told CBC News.

Morland said the protests were likely planned in advance of UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari's second visit to the country.

Gambari is scheduled to arrive Nov. 3 to try to persuade the ruling junta into talks with Suu Kyi.

Since his first visit, Gambari has been touring neighbouring Asian countries, including India and China, to push for them to take a harder line against the regime.

With files from the Associated Press