BANGKOK - THAI Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat called an unscheduled meeting of his coalition partners on Friday amid intensifying speculation he would call a snap election after the head of the army said he should step down.

Despite his comments, made in a live television interview on Thursday alongside the heads of the Navy, Air Force and police, army chief Aupong Paochinda insisted he was not about to launch a coup only two years after the removal of Thaksin Shinawatra.

Analysts read the remarks as an attempt by the military, which is under heavy pressure from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) street movement, to undermine Mr Somchai so much that he jumps without the need for a full-blown putsch.

'The generals know another coup will isolate Thailand from the rest of the world, so they had to come out on TV to heap pressure on the government,' political analyst Boonyakiat Karavekphan of Bangkok's Ramkhamhaeng University said.

Mr Somchai, Thaksin's brother-in-law and a political novice, came to power in September after a court removed his predecessor, Samak Sundaravej, for hosting a cooking show on commercial television while in office.

Few analysts expected him to last more than a few months, and Anupong's comments are only likely to hasten that demise.

Having dodged reporters camped outside his home in a northern Bangkok suburb on Friday morning, Mr Somchai went on an official engagement to the ancient capital of Ayutthaya, 70 km north of Bangkok.

Hounded by a media scrum, his only comments were to handicraft workers at a government-run centre.

'I had a little spare time this morning which gave me the chance to stop by. I may not have another chance to come back again if I don't have the time,' he said. 'If I stay in my job for a long time, I will visit again.'

Please go, says army chief
Mr Somchai had originally been scheduled to fly to eastern Thailand for a visit on Saturday to troops involved in this week's clash with Cambodia around the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple, a source of tension for decades.

Some analysts link the eruption of fighting on the border to the political instability that has roiled Thailand for the last three years, and which appears to be reaching another climax.

'I somehow doubt that the Thai action is more than a reflection of the intense nationalism which the army feel they must demonstrate to keep the population on their side,' Mr Derek Tonkin, a former British ambassador to Thailand, said.

Gen Anupong's main remark - 'If I were the prime minister, I would have resigned' - was the strongest indication yet that the armed forces think the time is up for Mr Somchai's elected administration.

However, government spokesman Nattawut Saikuar said he did not think the military would dare intervene only two years after its removal of Thaksin, a coup that failed to purge him from the political system due to his sustained rural support.

'The army chief has consistently assured us that it will not happen, which is a blessing for the country,' Mr Nattawut told Channel 3 television. 'Otherwise this cannot end. Another group of people will rise to fight the power behind the coup.' -- REUTERS