They would not have to bear heavy costs or put up their own capital under the scheme, Thaksin said without going into detail.

He was speaking after handing out Sor Por Kor 4-01 title deeds issued by the Agricultural Land Reform Office (Alro) to 1,000 farmers in an annual ceremony that was performed at Government House for the first time.

Caretaker Agriculture Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said the venue had been selected because the hand-over was augmented this year by the provision of know-how and marketing advice.

"In the past the documents were simply given out. The knowledge and marketing strategies have been culled from more than 2,000 projects," she said.

Citing an Alro report, she said 24.5 million rai had been distributed to 1.5 million farmers living in 3,025 tambons in 69 provinces. This year will see 50,000 more farmers receiving title deeds this month and 119,000 in August.

She dismissed criticism that the hand-over event had been given extra exposure to boost political support for her Thai Rak Thai Party.

"I'd like to ask for fairness. The titles are distributed every year regardless of whether there's an election. Don't blame us on this. The distribution is aimed at fully benefiting the farmers," she added.

Thaksin said the Assets Capitalisation Bureau would assist those farmers who wanted to use their new title deeds to obtain credit. He urged all farmers to take the loans backed by their title deeds and make wise use of the land they received, either by farming it or doing some other business with it.