* Tens of thousands join biggest protests since 2007

* Crowds seek end to junta rule, release of Aung San Suu Kyi

* Internet restored after more than one-day blockage(Adds comment from rights group, television report)

Feb 7 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people rallied acrossMyanmar on Sunday to denounce last week's coup and demand therelease of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in the biggestprotests since the 2007 Saffron Revolution that helped lead todemocratic reforms.

In a second day of widespread protests, crowds in thebiggest city, Yangon, sported red shirts, red flags and redballoons, the colour of Suu Kyi’s National League for DemocracyParty (NLD).

"We don’t want military dictatorship! We want democracy!"they chanted.

On Sunday afternoon, the junta ended a day-long blockade ofthe internet that had further inflamed anger since the coup lastMonday that has halted the Southeast Asian nation's troubledtransition to democracy and drawn international outrage.

Pope Francis expressed "solidarity with the people" onSunday and asked Myanmar's leaders to seek "democratic" harmony.

Huge crowds from all corners of Yangon gathered intownships, filling streets as they headed towards the SulePagoda at the heart of the city, also a rallying point duringthe Buddhist monk-led 2007 protests and others in 1988.

A line of armed police with riot shields set up barricades,but did not try to stop the demonstration. Some marcherspresented police with flowers. One officer was photographedgiving a surreptitious three-finger salute.

Protesters gestured with the three-finger salute that hasbecome a symbol of protest against the coup. Drivers honkedtheir horns and passengers held up photos of Suu Kyi.

"We don’t want a dictatorship for the next generation," said21-year-old Thaw Zin. "We will not finish this revolution untilwe make history. We will fight to the end."

There was no comment from the junta in the capitalNaypyidaw, more than 350 km (220 miles) north of Yangon.State-run MRTV news reported on army officers visiting hospitalsand plans to reopen pagodas, but not on the protests.

An internal note for U.N. staff estimated that 1,000 peoplejoined a protest in Naypyidaw while there were 60,000 in Yangonalone. Protests were reported in the second city of Mandalay andmany towns and villages across the country of 53 million peoplethat stretches from Indian Ocean islands to the fringes of theHimalayas.

The Yangon protesters dispersed after dark, saying theywould return if their demands are not met.

The demonstrations have largely been peaceful, unlike thebloody crackdowns in 1998 and 2007.

But shots were heard in the southeastern town of Myawaddy asuniformed police with guns charged a group of about 200protesters, live video showed. Pictures of protesters afterwardsshowed what appeared to be rubber bullet injuries.

'ANYTHING'S POSSIBLE'

"Anti-coup protests show every sign of gaining steam. On theone hand, given history, we can well expect the reaction tocome," author and historian Thant Myint-U wrote on Twitter.

"On the other, Myanmar society today is entirely differentfrom 1988 and even 2007. Anything's possible."

With no internet and official information scarce, rumoursswirled about the fate of Suu Kyi and her cabinet. A story thatshe had been released drew crowds out to celebrate on Saturday,but it was quickly quashed by her lawyer.

Suu Kyi, 75, faces charges of illegally importing sixwalkie-talkies and is being held in police detention forinvestigation until Feb. 15. Her lawyer said he has not beenallowed to see her.

She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for campaigning fordemocracy, and spent nearly 15 years under house arrest duringdecades of struggling to end almost half a century of army rulebefore the start of a troubled transition to democracy in 2011.

Army commander Min Aung Hlaing carried out the coup on thegrounds of fraud in a Nov. 8 election in which Suu Kyi's NLD wona landslide. The electoral commission dismissed the allegationsof malpractice.

"It is simple, the NLD won the 2020 election," Bo Kyi of theAssistance Association for Political Prisoners rights group saidin a statement. "There is reasonable concern that the militaryjunta will transform these peaceful demonstrations into a riotand take advantage of the instability."

More than 160 people have been arrested since the militaryseized power, said Thomas Andrews, the United Nations specialrapporteur on Myanmar.

"The generals are now attempting to paralyse the citizenmovement of resistance - and keep the outside world in the dark- by cutting virtually all internet access," Andrews said in astatement on Sunday.

"We must all stand with the people of Myanmar in their hourof danger and need. They deserve nothing less."

Pope Francis, who met Min Aung Hlaing when visiting Myanmarin 2017, appeared to come down against the military leaders athis Sunday address, saying he prayed the leadership wouldpromote a "harmonious and democratic co-existence."

There are fewer than 800,000 Roman Catholics in thepredominantly Buddhist country.(Reporting by Reuters staff; Writing by Poppy McPherson;Editing by Kim Coghill, Christian Schmollinger, William Mallard,William Maclean and Timothy Heritage)