Bangkok  - Thailand's Parliament on Monday selected Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva as the next prime minister, giving the 44-year-old Oxford-educated politician a slim majority to form the next government.

An extraordinary session of the lower house gave Abhisit a thin victory by a 235-198 vote over his rival, police General Pracha Promnok, the Puea Paendin Party leader. Three members abstained.

Bangkok  - Thailand's Parliament opened an extraordinary session Monday to vote in a new prime minister after the last premier and much of the cabinet lost their posts in a court ruling.

The vote was expected to be close between the two nominated candidates, Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva and the Puea Paendin Party's leader, police General Pracha Promnok.

"It will be a close call," said Kraisak Choonhavan, a senior Democrat Party member.

Bangkok  - The vote for Thailand's next premier at an extraordinary session of parliament on Monday will be very close with the outcome still far from certain, politicians predicted Sunday.

Parliament will reconvene to vote on the 27th prime minister, now a toss-up between Democrat party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva and Puea Paendin party leader Police General Pracha Promnok.

Democrats claim to have secured some 260 of the 438 seats in the Lower House, enough to win Abhisit, 44, the premiership, but the real numbers will not be known until after the vote Monday morning.

"It will be a close call," predicted Kraisak Choonhavan, a senior member of the Democrat party.

Bangkok - Thousands of Thais sporting red shirts gathered Saturday at the Suphachalasai Stadium in Bangkok to show their support for fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who planned to address the rally by teleconference.

About 10,000 Thaksin followers gathered at the stadium by Saturday afternoon and more were pouring in for the event, the highlight of which would be a phone-in from their beloved leader, from "a country close by," according to organizers.

Thaksin, who has been living in self exile since August and faces a two-year jail term in Thailand for abuse of power when he was premier in 2003, addressed a similar audience on November 13 of an estimated 60,000 followers.

Bangkok- Thailand's foreign ministry has issued a protest letter to the Economist magazine about two articles that appeared in its December 6-12 issue on the sensitive topic of the Thai monarchy, officials said Friday.

"The letter will appear in the next issue of the Economist," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat, who penned the letter.

Although the magazine was not officially banned, Thai distributors of last week's Economist did not import the issue which contained two articles on the monarchy under the titled "A right royal mess" and "The King and them."

Bangkok  - Thai opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva on Friday pledged to try to host the 14th ASEAN summit in early February if he is elected prime minister next week.

Thailand, which was scheduled to host the 14th summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations on December 15-18, had to postpone the annual event until March because of political chaos in Bangkok.