Red Shirts told 'disperse before we talk peace'

The decision yesterday set back hopes of stemming the crisis after six days of violence that has left 38 people dead and destabilised the country.

Thousands of anti-government Red Shirts, many rural poor, remain camped behind barricades to press their demand for quick national elections. Their sympathisers battled soldiers in nearby streets.

Cabinet minister Satit Wonghnongtaey said the prime minister welcomed negotiations to halt the violence but that "talks will happen only after the protest has ended".

The response was to an earlier move by Red Shirt protest leaders who said they would unconditionally accept an offer by the country's Senate to mediate between the two sides.

The country's upper house of Parliament offered to broker negotiations between the warring sides on Monday providing they both stopped the fighting that has transformed large swaths of downtown Bangkok to a war zone.

A Red Shirt leader, Weng Tojirakarn, told a news conference: "We accept the proposal from the Senate." Another protest leader, Nattawut Saikua, said: "It would not be right if I set conditions for the Senate."

The protesters' acceptance was significant, since they had previously set conditions for any talks.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva asked the Senate to maintain contact with Red Shirt leaders and urge them to end their protest. But after hearing the government response, the Red Shirts vowed their

demonstration would go on.

"As long as the troops are confronting the people, the people will fight," said Jatuporn Prompan, a key protest leader. "Peace will start when troops retreat and then negotiations can take place."

Prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's administration gave the anti-government demonstrators, who have been entrenched in the upscale Rajprasong district for more than a month, a Monday afternoon deadline to leave or face two-year prison terms.

By yesterday, there was still no exodus among the estimated 3,000 protesters remaining at the camp, and no sign of troops trying to break through their tyre-and-bamboo barricades.

The Red Shirts have for a month occupied a square-mile of Bangkok's most expensive area, camping in the streets next to closed five-star hotels and shopping malls. It was not clear exactly how many people were left there yesterday. The government estimated 3,000, down from 5,000 on Sunday and 10,000 last week.

The protesters are demanding Mr Abhisit dissolve Parliament and call early elections. They say the current administration came to power through manipulation of the courts and the backing of the powerful military, and that it goes against results of a 2007 election to restore democracy after a military coup.

The stand-off deteriorated into street clashes last Thursday after the military surrounded entrances to the protest zone in an attempt to cut off supplies of food and water, and a military adviser to the Red

Shirts was shot by a sniper.

Since then, fiery battles have raged on streets in nearby areas.