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BANGKOK: Thailand's new Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, was forced to change venues for his maiden policy speech after riot police failed to clear protesters besieging Bangkok's parliament building. Mr Abhisit, leader of the Democrat Party, instead addressed lawmakers at the foreign ministry as protracted political turmoil in the kingdom showed no sign of ending.
With protesters confronting police outside, Mr Abhisit gave a 50-minute speech outlining plans to jump-start the economy, heal the country's political divisions, address a Muslim insurgency in the south and repair its tattered image among foreign tourists and business leaders.
"The Government has come into office at a time of conflict. This conflict has become the weakness of the country," he told lawmakers that included only his coalition members.
Opposition MPs boycotted the session. "Our Government's priorities are reviving the ailing economy and solving the conflicts between groups in Thai society," he said.
The protesters, vowing to ring the Parliament building until their demands for new general elections are met, forced the Government to abandon plans on Monday to deliver its policy speech.
They are loyal to Thaksin Shinawatra, the premier ousted in a 2006 coup, and said Mr Abhisit's Government was not legitimate as he came to power after the Thaksin-linked former ruling party was dissolved by a court early this month.
Mr Abhisit's election in a parliamentary vote earlier this month ended six months of increasingly disruptive protests by anti-Thaksin group the People's Alliance for Democracy, which peaked when they seized and closed Bangkok's two airports. The Oxford educated Mr Abhisit, 44, is Thailand's third premier in four months.
