Thaksin protesters converge for Bangkok rally

The Red Shirts travelled to the city mostly by pick-up truck and car, playing loud music and waving red flags and heart-shaped clappers.

Tens of thousands of supporters of deposed Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra gathered near ministry buildings in Bangkok on Saturday to rally against the government, sporting their signature red shirts.

Bangkok police said 45,000 Red Shirts had arrived at a stage rigged up for Sunday's rally after most travelled from the rural north and through military checkpoints set up at entry points to the capital.

Thai authorities have used a tough security law to deploy a 50,000-strong security force, including soldiers, to patrol the streets and search protesters, fearing some could incite trouble.

The Red Shirts travelled to the city mostly by pick-up truck and car, playing loud music and waving red flags and heart-shaped clappers in jubilant spirits.

"Tomorrow we will declare our demands to the government, that it must step down and dissolve the house," Red Shirt Jatuporn Prompan said at the rally site.

"If our demands are not met then we will step up our campaign on Monday but I can reassure everyone that it will be peaceful."

The government has enacted the strict Internal Security Act to monitor the rally, allowing authorities to set up checkpoints, impose curfews and limit movement of people.

Current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who has refused to bow to protesters' demands, spoke to reporters after meeting ministers and top brass at a military barracks.

"We should not be complacent because there are some groups of people still wanting to create violence and cause confrontations," said Abhisit, who has cancelled a weekend trip to Australia because of the rally.

The government has lowered its estimate of expected turnout at Sunday's rally to 70,000, but the Red Shirts say the final figure will be nearer 600,000.

The protests come two weeks after Thailand's top court confiscated 1.4 billion dollars of Thaksin's assets, and are the latest chapter in a political crisis that has beset Thailand since he was toppled in a 2006 coup.

Thaksin, who has been living mostly in Dubai to escape a two-year jail term for corruption at home, has been encouraging his supporters using text messages and his Twitter page.

"Thank you for your dedication.... I want to give my support to the people in the north," he told his followers on Twitter Saturday, before announcing he was about to fly from Dubai to Europe to see his two daughters.

The protest is set to be the biggest since the Red Shirts rioted in Bangkok in April last year, leaving two dead and scores injured.

The Red Shirts mainly represent Thailand's rural poor, who benefited from Thaksin's populist policies and say Abhisit's government is elitist, military-backed and has ignored their democratic rights.

Thaksin, by contrast, is loathed by the rival royalist "Yellow Shirts" backed by Bangkok's establishment, who accuse him of corruption and of disloyalty to the revered royal family.

Thirty-five countries have issued travel warnings for Thailand because of the protests, according to the country's tourism authority.

Analysts say the number of Red Shirts who actually rally on Sunday will be key to deciding whether they have any chance of pushing out the government before Thailand's next elections, due in December 2011.