UNITED NATIONS — A day after President Bush used the most prominent U.N. podium to highlight worsening oppression in Burma, and as the country’s military rulers escalated their assault on peaceful demonstrators on the streets of Rangoon, the U.N. Security Council yesterday decided to dispatch a U.N. envoy to the country and called on the junta to allow him in “as soon as possible.”

Yesterday’s Security Council meeting became the focal point of the latest clash between an American-European front focusing on human rights — as presented by Mr. Bush in an address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday — and a camp led by China that opposes any interference in the internal affairs of countries.

Beyond its strong economic and other ties to the Burmese military rulers, diplomats here say, China is concerned that events such as the swelling demonstrations in the last few days in Burma, not seen there since the massacre of demonstrators in 1988, could engulf China itself, evoking the specter of the 1989 events in Tiananmen Square.

According to council diplomats, China negotiated a deal in advance yesterday, allowing a Security Council meeting and a briefing on events in Burma as long as no significant action would be taken.

Although it was not a recorded official council act, American officials saw yesterday’s meeting as a direct response not only to the situation on the ground in the Burmese capital but also to Mr. Bush’s speech to the assembly, in which he announced a new set of sanctions on the most senior Burmese human rights violators.

The Burmese foreign minister, Nyan Win, denied reports of casualties among the demonstrators in Rangoon yesterday. “No” was his only response to a New York Sun reporter when, on his way up to meet Secretary-General Ban, he was asked whether any protesters had been killed.

The council dispatched Mr. Ban’s envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, to Rangoon. As Mr. Ban has done earlier in the day, in a separate statement, the council urged the Burmese generals to let Mr. Gambari into the country and to allow him to visit with dissidents, including the jailed Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Mr. Gambari left last night for the region, but it was not clear whether the Burmese military leaders would allow him to enter, the American ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, said. Mr. Nyan declined to answer a question about it.

According to dissident sources inside the country who spoke to the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma, a group affiliated with the party of Ms. Suu Kyi, at least six demonstrators were killed during the government raid. Some were monks, the campaign’s spokesman, Jeremy Woodruff, said. By last night, 400 demonstrators had been arrested in 24 hours, pushing the number of those detained after participating in the peaceful demonstrations of the last 36 days to 600.

Mr. Bush and first lady Laura Bush, who has been moved by the plight of Ms. Suu Kyi, have been seeking for more than a year to focus international attention on the Burmese regime. “I hope that the people of Burma know that the world does stand with them and that we are watching them,” Mrs. Bush said yesterday in an interview with the radio station Voice of America, which was broadcast to Burma. “And I hope that the ruling generals know that, too, that any sort of violence or suppression of these peaceful protests will be deplored by the world.”

A day earlier, Mr. Bush, in his annual address to the U.N. General Assembly, said the “ruling junta remains unyielding, yet the people’s desire for freedom is unmistakable,” and he announced a new set of American sanctions, including several new economic measures and travel restrictions on military leaders.

The European Union and America followed the speech by issuing a joint statement yesterday, expressing “solidarity with the people of Burma” and calling on the Security Council to discuss the situation “urgently” and to consider “further steps, including sanctions.” A European diplomat said the European Union is planning to impose a set of new sanctions in addition to the economic measures it has already imposed. China and its council allies, led by Russia and including Indonesia and South Africa, have long considered the situation in Burma an internal matter. “It is not a threat to international peace and security,” a top Russian diplomat, Konstantin Dolgov, said.

China is opposed to any sanctions, especially those involving its client states. “We believe that sanctions is not helpful for the situation down there,” the Chinese ambassador, Wang Guangya, told the Sun, after arguing that as a neighbor, his country is most qualified to deal with the situation in Burma.

Despite the opposition, the decision to dispatch Mr. Gambari to the region — and presumably to report back to the council upon his return — could open the door for future council action, one Western diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Mr. Gambari told the council that he had an “open invitation” from the Burmese junta to visit the country, and that he was planning to go on a trip there anyway, but American, British, and other diplomats urged him to go immediately.