The International Labour Organisation still hopes to send representatives to Burma to investigate reports of widespread forced labour 30 years after it started probing the military regime.
Burma's military Government, a member of the organisation, openly admits 'voluntary contributions' of labour are vital to its plans to develop the country's meagre infrastructure.
But the organisation now fears the population is under more pressure than ever because so many people are being coerced into working for government projects or into carrying ammunition for army patrols.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has claimed that parents - outside a privileged circle of entrepreneurs and officials - are so poor they are sometimes forced to send children to fulfil the forced labour requirement so they are free to earn food money.