Beijing - China on Tuesday confirmed that Thai former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra had visited the country recently but declined to elaborate as state media said he was already on his way out of China on Monday.

"Mr Thaksin was in China on vacation," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters. "I don't have any further information on that."

The official China Daily newspaper said it had spoken to Thaksin by telephone while he was in Beijing.

"I will keep travelling," the newspaper quoted him as saying on Monday. "I'm leaving Beijing at the moment."

Thaksin also denied Thai media reports that he was building a 60-million-yuan (8.9-million-dollar) mansion at a golf resort near Beijing, the newspaper said.

The Philippine government on Monday rejected reports that visiting Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who is Thaksin's brother-in-law, would seek political asylum for Thaksin.

Thaksin and his wife, Pojaman, had lived in self-imposed exile in London since August 11, days after Pojaman was sentenced to a three-year jail term on tax evasion charges, but the British government last week revoked their visas.

Thailand's Supreme Court for Political Office Holders on October 21 sentenced Thaksin to two years in jail for abusing his powers as premier in 2003 by allowing his billionaire wife to successfully bid on a prime plot of Bangkok land at a government auction.

The populist premier from 2001 to 2006 was ousted by a coup on September 19, 2006, but he continues to exert influence on Thai politics via the People Power Party, which won the last election on a pro-Thaksin platform. (dpa)