Bangkok - Thousands of anti-government protestors turned a royal park in central Bangkok into a sea of red Saturday night, putting pressure on a new Thai government that seeks national reconciliation after three years of political upheaval.

The followers of controversial former prime minister Thaksin Shinwatra are demanding the government take action against rival demonstrators who closed Bangkok's airports in December, including the current foreign minister, Kasit Pirom.

They are also demanding that allegedly anti-democratic changes to the constitutional made by military appointees after Thaksin was overthrown in a September 2006 coup be rescinded.

The organizers of the United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship claim as many as 100,000 so-called Red Shirts joined in the noisy, music-driven demonstration, although police estimates are much lower.

Speakers at the rally said the gathering was a tribute to the support for the self-exiled Thaksin, especially among the rural and urban poor who like his populist handouts and dynamic style. Thaksin is currently living overseas after a court found him guilty of corruption late last year.

The new government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajjiva has attempted to undermine support for Thaksin by promising economic help for poor northern provinces.

The Red Shirts plan to move across town to the prime minister's office Government House on Saturday night in ironic echo of protests by their rival Yellow Shirts in December. The Yellow Shirts occupied Government House for three months and later seized Bangkok's airports for a week, triggering the collapse of a Thaksin-backed government.

The government and the army have warned the Red Shirts the country is in no mood to tolerate any further disruptions, given the fragile state of the economy and the urgent need to tackle problems resulting from the neglect of the past two years.

But the Red Shirts charge that the Democrat Party-led government was ushered into power by the military and its elite allies after courts banned serving ministers and strong-armed some politicians to switch sides.

"This government lacks legitimacy and, ultimately, it must hold fresh elections. Is this a democracy or not?" said one Red Shirt leader, Chinnawat Haboonpad.

Another core Red Shirt leader, Jakrapob Penkair, a former minister in the previous government, said the protest was a "good test" of Red Shirt popularity and a signal that major political imbalances remain to be righted, he told the Thai News Agency. (dpa)