Bangkok - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Thursday he might ask China to extradite fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The controversial former premier is scheduled to give a speech in Hong Kong Monday. He has kept clear of Thailand after being given a jail sentence last year for breaching corruption rules when his wife successfully bid for government land while he was in office.

Thaksin, who won all three general elections he fought since forming his own political party a decade ago, remains deeply distrusted by much of the military, as well urban elites and the palace.

Many analysts suspect the Democrat Party-led government might be happy for Thaksin to remain abroad, as it attempts to consolidate its power following the legal and political crushing of a popularly elected pro-Thaksin government.

However, Thaksin is scheduled to speak at Hong Kong's Foreign Correspondents Club Monday, which observers regard a provocative move.

Abhisit said the government was exploring its legal options now that it appears to have a definite fix on Thaksin's whereabouts, the Thai News Agency reported.

The former prime minister, in self-exile since August 2008, has repeatedly said he would no get a fair trial in Thailand.

He was ousted by a military coup in September 2006, but his political allies returned to power in the guise of the newly created People Power Party which won the December 2007 general elections.

Signs that Thaksin was maneuvering to return to power brought royalist anti-Thaksin protestors onto the streets in May 2008, and they continued their demonstrations until the party was dissolved by a Constitutional Court ruling on December 3, which found it guilty of committing fraud in the last polls.

The ruling paved the way for the Democrat Party, which came in second place in the 2007 polls, to form a new coalition government.

Pro-Thaksin Red Shirts, currently protesting outside Government House in Bangkok, insist the Democrat-led government lacks legitimacy since the Democrats did not win the largest number of seats in the last election. (dpa)