The New Nation - Internet Edition

Agency, Bangkok

Anti-government protesters sit in front of the departure terminal at Suvarnabhumi airport, Bangkok

The protesters say they will not leave until the PM resigns The head of Thailand's powerful army has asked the government to dissolve parliament and call new elections.

Gen Anupong Paochinda denied the move amounted to a coup, and also called on anti-government protesters to withdraw from Bangkok's international airport.

Members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) took over the airport on Tuesday, stranding thousands.

It was the PAD's most dramatic move so far after months of calling for the government to resign.

It is unclear where Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat now is - he was due to return to Thailand on Wednesday from an Asia-Pacific summit in Peru. However, Gen Anupong said the government was still in control.

"This is not a coup," he told a news conference.

"The government still has full authority. These points are the way to solve the problem which has plunged the country into a deep crisis," Gen Anupong said. "If a coup could end all the troubles, I would do it," he added. The protesters, who have also been occupying a government compound in the capital since August, claim that the government is corrupt and hostile to the monarchy.

They also accuse it of being a proxy for former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a military 2006 coup, but who critics say is still very influential. The PAD is a loose grouping of royalists, businessmen and the urban middle-class opposed to Mr Thaksin.

It said the airport protest was a "final battle" to bring down the government. The BBC's Jonathan Head, in Bangkok, says that the government appeared to have adopted a strategy of allowing the PAD to attack government buildings while avoiding clashes, in the hope that it could wear the protesters down.