Bangkok - Thai shares rose 1.99 per cent in value Monday on confidence that the scheduled US policy announcement on toxic assets will lead to a reinvestment in Asian stocks.

The stock Exchange of Thailand index ended at 438.17, up 8.53 points or 1.99 per cent.

Pattani, Thailand - Bomb blasts in Thailand's restive province of Narathiwat injured eleven people Monday, police said.

A bomb packed on a motorcycle exploded at 6:40 am in an open-air market, injuring two policemen and eight civilians.

"We had been warned about bomb attacks but we didn't expect one in the city," Narathiwat Police Sub-Lieutenant Anusorn Wanglee said.

Another bomb went off Monday morning outside a coffee shop at Sugai Koloh, 770 kilometres south of Bangkok, injuring one policeman.

Thailand - Thailand's economy is expected to contract by 3 per cent this year and could contract by up to 9 per cent if the government fails to push through stimulus programmes, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said Monday.

"If the government had no stimulus programmes the gross domestic product (GDP) could contract 8 to 9 per cent this year," Korn told reporters.

The Fiscal Policy Office has lowered its GDP growth projection for 2009 from minus 2 per cent to minus 3 per cent, he said.

Bangkok  - Thailand's Health Ministry has warned people suffering from asthma and allergies to avoid eating fried insects, a popular street-stall snack in Bangkok and other cities, media reports said Sunday.

A recent study conducted by the ministry found that the fried silk worms, grasshoppers and other six-legged delicacies often contain excessively high levels of histamine that can trigger allergic reactions or asthma attacks, The Nation newspaper reported.

Bangkok  - Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya left Sunday for an official two-day visit to Myanmar that is expected to touch on the controversial issue of the two countries' joint efforts to solve the ethnic minority Rohingya problem.

In his first official visit to Myanmar as foreign minister, Kasit will meet Prime Minister General Thein Sein and his counterpart Nyan Win in the military's new capital of Naypyitaw, 350 kilometres north of Yangon.