BANGKOK - A THAI court issued a fourth arrest warrant for toppled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Friday, but his spokesman insisted that the former leader would not return to Thailand to stand trial.

Thaksin, who was ousted from power in a 2006 coup, recently fled Thailand to escape a string of corruption charges.

Thaksin's personal spokesman, Phongthep Thepkanchana, told reporters at the Supreme Court on Friday that Thaksin and his family would not return to Thailand to stand trial.

'Thaksin and his family are now living in London and he will not return to face any trial in the near future,' Mr Phongthep said.

Thailand's Supreme Court opened another corruption trial against Thaksin earlier on Friday on charges he and his entire cabinet broke lottery laws in 2003.

The court immediately suspended proceedings against Thaksin, who skipped bail to London in August to avoid another trial, and issued another warrant for his arrest, the fifth since graft cases launched after a 2006 coup got off the ground this year.

'The first defendant was well aware of the trial today but did not show up, leading the court to believe he is on the run,' Judge Roongroj Ruenrerngwong told the court.

Procecdings continued against the 46 ministers and senior bureaucrats also charged.

Three ministers in the cabinet of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat - Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, Industry Minister Pracha Promnok and Labour Minister Uraiwan Thienthong - are among the 46 and could lose their jobs.

The charges relate to a cabinet resolution to set up a new national lottery that government opponents allege bypassed the normal legal procedure.

Mr Somchai, a brother-in-law of Thaksin, chaired his first cabinet meeting on Friday, with one opinion poll among Bangkok voters suggesting 63 per cent of people in the capital disliked the government less than a week into its life. -- REUTERS, AP