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.

Bangkok - A Thai appeals court upheld a libel conviction against former prime minister Samak Sundaravej Thursday and sentenced him to two years in jail but then released him on bail.

The verdict came after Samak lost his post as prime minister on September 9 when the Constitution Court found him guilty of illegal moonlighting by hosting television cooking shows while he was in office. It is illegal for sitting prime ministers to earn income from a second job.

Bangkok - Thailand's sacked prime minister Samak Sundaravej confirmed that he will no longer try to regain the post he lost this week for hosting television cooking shows, news reports said Saturday.

Theerapol Nopparampa, a close aide to Samak, has confirmed that Samak will no longer seek a renomination as prime minister and may also shed his post as leader of the People Power Party (PPP) - the countruy's largest political party, the Bangkok Post newspaper said.

Bangkok - Thailand's Parliament on Friday postponed a vote on a new prime minister after a court sacked premier Samak Sundaravej this week for moonlighting as a television cooking show host.

Samak had been renominated for the job he lost Tuesday, but the failure by many of his own People Power Party (PPP) members to show up for Friday's vote demonstrated the strong opposition to his reinstatement.

Bangkok - Embattled Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on Monday denied charges that he had broken the constitution by hosting a television cooking show while holding the premiership, claiming the programme had been done on a freelance basis.

In May, a group of Thai senators charged Samak with violating the constitution by continuing his job as a TV presenter on his personal cooking show, Chim pai, bon pai 
(Tasting and Complaining), after he had been appointed prime minister on February 6.

Bangkok - Embattled Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej claimed Sunday he would attend the United Nations General Assembly later this month to explain the country's political situation to the international community.

In his weekly "Talking Samak Style" Sunday television programme, the prime minister said he was not worried about a military coup occurring while he is in New York at UN annual meeting which starts on September 23.