Bangkok - Rapidly sliding global demand is expected to cut Thai automobile production by more than 35 per cent next year, said a report Saturday.

The number of vehicles produced could drop from 1.4 million this year to less than 1 million, if domestic sales fall 10 per cent and exports crash 50 per cent, Wallop Taisiri, director of the Thailand Automotive Institute, was quoted as saying by the Bangkok Post.

Thousands of workers have already lost jobs and more are at risk, the report said.

Bangkok  - Thais must be resilient going into what could be a very rough 2009, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Friday.

Workers should not engage in disruptive protests against their employers which "unwittingly exacerbate economic woes by undermining business confidence," he said after a meeting with Democrat Party chief advisor, former prime minister Chuan Leekpai.

Bangkok  - Thailand's fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra can now lay his hands on just 500 million dollars - about a tenth of his estimated previous wealth, the Nation newspaper said Friday.

The founder of Thailand's biggest telecoms conglomerate was thought to be worth around 5 billion dollars before he was ousted in a September 2006 military coup.

Bangkok  - Workers at a car factory blocked the main highway from Bangkok to the seaside resort of Pattaya Wednesday after rejecting a year-end bonus.

Several high-profile labour disputes have broken out in recent weeks as the economy slows down and employers try to cut jobs and pay.

Two companies of police commandos were deployed when 300 workers of a plant producing cars for Ford Motor Co and Mazda Motor Corp at Rayong province south-east of Bangkok blocked the road after the company trimmed the workers' pay demands.

Bangkok  - Thailand's king gave his approval to the country's new cabinet Saturday, despite criticism that several cabinet members in charge of economic issues lack experience.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, the new prime minister, told television stations his government was "good enough and committed enough" to restore an economy that has been rocked not only by the global economic crisis, but also months of local political turmoil culminating in the closure of Bangkok's two airports, from November 25 to December 3.

Bangkok - Thailand will run an ethical foreign policy untainted by personal business interests, the likely new foreign minister, former diplomat Kasit Piromya, said Friday.

Kasit said foreign policy moves made by the previous governments controlled by fugitive billionaire businessman Thaksin Shinawatra were compromised by his personal interests.

"From now on there will be no personal business dealings on the side. This government will not mix business and politics," Kasit told an academic conference.

Former prime minister Thaksin was frequently accused of using official state trips to promote his family's sprawling telecoms empire, before it was sold two years ago.