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"This to me appears to have created an extremely dangerous power vacuum," said Jonah, but he added that he would pass on the government's request for foreign armed intervention.
"But I informed them about the difficulties of mobilising an international force, given the many activities the U.N. has at the moment," he added.
Another meeting was due to be held in Kigali among the premiers of Rwanda, Tanzania and Zaire on developments in Burundi, the office of Tanzanian Prime Minister and Vice-President John Malecela said.
Malecala left early Thursday for the Rwandan capital and was scheduled to return to Dar es Salaam later in the day.
Like Rwanda, Tanzania has been confronted by a massive flow of Burundian refugees fleeing violence and massacres among Tutsis and Hutus which erupted anew after the coup.
In Tanzania alone, officials said the number of refugees had risen from 85,000 on Wednesday morning to 250,000 early Thursday.
The minister of state in the premier's office, Mustafa Nyang'anyi, who had just returned from a three-day tour of the northwestern border regions of Kigoma and Kagera, told AFP Thursday that most of the refugees were in poor shape, some with bullet and machette injuries.
He said the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has provided 600,000 dollars to the Tanzanian government and the U.N. World Food Programme will give 240 tonnes of maize to help the refugees.
A Belgian airliner landed Thursday at Bujumbura airport, which opened to light traffic Wednesday for the first time since the coup bid. Telephone links also appeared to have been restored to normal.
bur/nb/dm AFP AFP
