Yangon, Myanmar ? Myanmar’s junta said Friday that hundreds of Buddhist monks were detained during its crackdown on pro-democracy activists and that it was hunting for four more clerics it described as ringleaders of the uprising.

The government insisted that most of the monks had already been freed, with only 109 still in custody, according to an official statement broadcast on state TV.

The junta’s treatment of the Buddhist monks – who are revered in this deeply religious nation – is a key issue that could anger soldiers loyal to the military rulers.

Twenty-nine monks were suspected of being protest leaders and 25 of them were already in custody, state media said. It identified the monks still at large as U Kantiya, U Visaitta, U Awbatha and U Parthaka, but did not name their monasteries.

Demonstrations that began in mid-August over a fuel price increase swelled into Myanmar’s largest anti-government protests in 19 years, inspired largely by thousands of monks coming out on the streets.

Television images last week showed soldiers shooting into crowds of unarmed protesters – but the government on Friday described the troops’ reaction as “systematically controlling” the protesters.

The government says 10 people were killed in the Sept. 26-27 crackdown and 2,100 were detained. But dissident groups put the death toll at more than 200 and the number of detainees at nearly 6,000.

The U.N. special envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, said the military government’s new willingness to hold talks with detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi marked “an hour of historic opportunity.”

“This is a potentially welcome development which calls for maximum flexibility on all sides,” Gambari said, briefing the U.N. Security Council about his four-day visit to Myanmar.

The United States and the European Union have issued some sanctions against Myanmar’s junta, but China and Russia have ruled out any Security Council action.