Bangkok - Thai prime minister Somchai Wongsawat on Friday rebuffed intense pressure to resign following a violent police crackdown against anti-government protestors.

Somchai, elevated last month, rejected a strong suggestion on Thursday by army commander Anupong Paojinda that he step down.

"This government was produced by the democratic system, It is not right that it be brought down by a mere opinion," Somchai said.

"Everyone should work together for the good of the country," he added.

Speaking live on national television, Somchai said that it was "supremely important" the government remained in place for the mid-November cremation of Princess Galyani Vadhana, the elder sister of Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

He said two other events in December also required an established government: Bhumibol's 81st birthday celebrations and this year's summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), held in Bangkok as Thailand holds ASEAN's rotating chairmanship.

Months of continuous protests by the uncompromisingly anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy, who picketed for weeks in front of Parliament, culminated on October 7 when protestors tried to prevent it opening for government business.

A police crackdown involving the firing of Chinese-made teargas canisters directly into the crowd left two people dead and more than 400 maimed or wounded.

Somchai promised the government would accept and "take responsibility" for whatever results a fact-finding investigation produced within a 15-day deadline.

He did not, however, rule out dissolving Parliament to facilitate new elections, but said this should be done only after a new constitution had been created to resolve the political differences over allocation of power now roiling the country.

"This is the way out of the current crisis," he said.

Political analysts in Bangkok said Somchai appears determined to remain in place, probably knowing army officers will be reluctant to hatch another coup just two years after they ejected then-prime-ministr Takshin Shinawatra in September 2006.

The military and the other elite groups also know that to remove another popularly elected government by force will further divide the city from the country, where Thaksin remains popular because of his populist policies. Somchai is Thaksin's brother-in-law and is viewed as the former strongman's proxy.

Earlier in the day thousands of PAD protestors flooded the Silom Road central business district blocking traffic and handing out DVDs and books of the crackdown and renewing calls for the government to step down.

The government faces multiple legal challenges that many observers see as likely to eventually remove it from power. The Constitutional Court may decide that the PPP should be banned because senior executives cheated during the last election. Somchai himself has been accused by anti-corruption investigators with abusing his powers during an earlier spell as a civil servant. (dpa)