Military brass from China and Burma went into a huddle on Monday (August 31) regarding the junta's military offensive against the ethnic Kokang ceasefire group also known as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) in Burma's northeast Shan State, said border sources.

The day-long meeting was held in Lashio (also spelled Lashu in Kachin) in northeast Shan State. Eight Chinese military officers led by Chief of the General Staff Chen Bingde of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) held discussions with four Burmese senior military officers including Lt-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, Commander of No. 2 Bureau of Special Operation (BSO), said sources, who monitored the meeting.

The BSO-2 is based in Loikaw in Karenni (Kayah) State and it is responsible for three military commands in Shan State --- the Lashio-based Northeast Command (NEC), Kengtong-based Triangle Areas Command (TAC) and Taunggyi-based Eastern Command (EC).

The high level military meeting between the two countries was held a week after the junta took control of the Kokang's capital Laogai with the help of Burmese troops wearing police uniforms without a single shot being fired on August 24.

The junta says that it captured Kokang's capital because the ceasefire group was into illegal heroin and weapon smuggling activities in Laogai breaking the 20-year-old ceasefire agreement between them, said the junta-run media.

Reliable border sources said, the military parleys between the two countries' concluded without yielding results because the junta launched the offensive in Kokang territory, bordering China's Yunnan province despite a request from China not to start a war before its National Day on  October 1.

China had also suggested to the ruling junta, not to launch heavy offensives against ethnic ceasefire groups based in areas along its border. The junta, however, rejected China's suggestion, said sources close to Chinese border security agents.

The junta is now sending several thousand troops and commando units to Kokang territory and the territory of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) near the group's 318th Army Division based in Namteuk, said UWSA sources.

At the same time, the junta is despatching hundreds of troops, tanks and mortars to Mongla areas where another ethnic ceasefire group known as the National Democratic Alliance Army-Eastern Shan State (NDAA-EES) is based, said sources close to NDAA-EES.

Burmese military supremo Senior General Than Shwe has ordered wiping out of all ethnic ceasefire groups along the Sino-Burma border, including the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), UWSA, NDAA-EES and others, alleged sources among ethnic ceasefire groups.

Meanwhile, another 6,000 civilian refugees from UWSA and NDAA-EES territories fled to Chinese territories on the border during the past two days, said sources close to a Chinese border refugee agency.