Bangkok: Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said today he had been warned of a coup plot against his government, but refused to say who was scheming against him.

Samak, whose government replaced a military regime after his People Power Party (PPP) won elections in December, said that he had received a letter listing people who were planning a coup.

"Anyone who might try another coup must ponder, why should he do that? For whom should he do that? Why and how?" Samak said, without revealing details of the threat.

But the premier said he did not believe there would be another putsch because the military top brass have already said they would not try to seize power.

"The military's supreme commander has said that he would never do that. The army chief, the navy chief, the air force chief and the supreme commander, none of them have ever said that they would consider a coup," Samak said.

Royalist generals in the military toppled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a bloodless coup in September 2007.

Despite the military's efforts to sideline Thaksin, his allies regrouped and formed the PPP, which now leads a six-party coalition with a large majority in parliament.

Samak has claimed the defence portfolio in his cabinet for himself, saying he wanted to manage relations with the military directly.

On Tuesday, he named the army chief, General Anupong Paojinda, as the head of the nation's most powerful security body, a move that was seen as granting the military greater influence over government policy, especially in fighting an insurgency in Muslim provinces.
Source : PTI