Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said on Saturday he was ready to negotiate with his ousted predecessor, Thaksin Shinawatra, to defuse growing political tensions in the country. Surayud made the offer a day after Thaksin attacked the generals who removed him in a military coup last September, saying he was "ready to come back to fight for his good name".
"I'm ready to negotiate on every issue where we have problems," Surayud said in his weekly radio and television address. "I have been ready for nine months. If we can negotiate, it would be of the utmost benefit. But we haven't done it," he said, noting he had only spoken on the telephone twice with Thaksin since the coup.
On Friday, in a speech recorded in exile and played on giant television screens to 13,000 of his supporters in central Bangkok, Thaksin accused the coup leaders of destroying the country's reputation and economy.
"These dictators are taking the country back several decades," he said to cheers from the crowd, many of whom waved red and white flags saying "CNS get out" - a reference to the Council of National Security, as the coup leaders are called.
"They have abused the rule of law and have undermined the country's credibility," said the former telecoms tycoon, who won unprecedented election landslides in 2001 and 2005 on the back of huge support from the rural masses. "If we continue to let the country fall into disarray, the poor will get poorer and businessmen will also suffer."
Spome 2,000 pro-Thaksin and anti-coup activists gathered at the Sanam Luang parade ground on Saturday and more were expected for a rally to demand an immediate return to democracy.
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