Bangkok - Former Thai prime minister Samak Sundaravej, who was forced out of office last month by a court ruling, said Saturday that he has cancer.

The rotund, outspoken Samak, 73, said that after the court ruling, abdominal pains prompted him to seek medical treatment and doctors discovered he has liver cancer, he told a local television programme.

An operation to alleviate the cancer had gone well, he said.

Samak, a veteran, maverick politician, became prime minister after December's general election and was continually accused by the opposition of being a proxy for Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed as premier in a bloodless September 2006 military coup and now lives in self-imposed exile in Britain as he faces numerous corruption cases back home.

Although protestors demanding Samak's resignation occupied his offices for weeks, he was eventually tripped up by a court ruling that found he had illegally moonlighted as a host of a TV cooking show while premier.

He was replaced by Thaksin's brother-in-law Somchai Wongsawat. (dpa)