Bangkok  - Thailand's anti-government Red Shirt movement is ready for six months of countrywide protests to force a new election and defeat their critics, Jakrapob Penkair, a leader of political group loyal to fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said Thursday.

Jakrapob's group - the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship - is now focused on a creating a huge show of popular anger against an "illegitimate government" next Wednesday, he said.

Bangkok - Thai shares climbed 2.96 per cent Thursday on the back of a robust overnight performance by Wall Street and a shiver of optimism over the global financial crisis although prices remained dogged by local political worries, analysts said.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand index ended at 422.96, up 12.87 points.

Bangkok - Asia's tourism industry may bounce back from the global financial crisis sooner than other regions, but it is in such a fragile state that another shock could be disastrous, a senior industry official said Thursday.

The Pacific Asia Travel Association, an industry lobby, forecast an average 4.2-per-cent annual growth in tourist arrivals from this year through to 2011, with a mild recovery showing later this year or in early 2010.

Bangkok - Anti-government protestors are to march on the Finance Ministry Thursday to demonstrate against borrowing foreign money to bolster the shrinking Thai economy, protest leaders said.

The move appeared designed to crank up tension in Bangkok before Songkran, the Thai New Year, which begins April 13, a time when most Thais leave the city to visit their families.

Bangkok - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Tuesday left behind a looming political crisis in Bangkok to go help the Group of 20 (G20) leaders fight the global economic crisis.

Abhisit, 43, was personally invited by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to attend Thursday's summit in London even through Thailand is not a member of the illustrious group of the world's 19 largest economies and the European Union.

Thailand's Oxford-educated premier is in London in his capacity as chairman of the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations.

Bangkok - Thai shares tumbled 2.54 per cent Monday on growing jitters over the fragile political scene at home and worries about the US economy abroad, analysts said.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) index ended at 429.60, down 11.21 points or 2.54 per cent.

"The main factors dragging share values down were local politics and worries that the shakeup of the automobile industry in the US," Asia Plus Securities stock analyst Thachatorn Laopudormsuk said.