In a related development, top officials at the Commerce Ministry met to discuss whether to proceed with certain policies, such as free trade talks with the US, that were initiated by ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Speaking after the first meeting of government officials since the coup, Suparut said a decision on whether to go ahead with mass-transit projects would have to be made by the interim government.

Concerns were voiced while Thaksin was still in power that the 2007 fiscal budget would be delayed for at least six months until a new Parliament was elected.

Suparut said that if the budget could be drawn up early it would help boost economic growth.

He met yesterday with senior officials and chiefs of state enterprises supervised by the ministry to update them on the situation since the military seized power.

Budget disbursement can now be enacted more quickly after the coup leaders promised to create a civilian government within two weeks, Suparut said.

Suparut said the new government would have to decide whether to continue the mega-projects.

The original plan for the 2007 budget included investment in three mass-transit projects in Bangkok. The Finance Ministry had planned to borrow money from the Japan Bank of International Cooperation to help pay for it.

Having estimated that government revenue for the 2007 fiscal year would be around Bt1.4 trillion, the Finance Ministry under ousted minister Thanong Bidaya, along with the Budget Bureau, Bank of Thailand and National Economic and Social Development Board, had indicated that the country might run a deficit for the year. The payoff would be faster growth after a period of economic deceleration this year.

Suparut said he was not worried about the rising cost of foreign loans if international rating agencies decided to downgrade Thailand's credit rating as a result of the coup. He said that when the situation returns to normal, rating agencies will focus on the fundamentals of the economy, which is sound.

Instead, Suparut predicted that the coup would assuage foreign investors' concerns that political tensions might turn violent.

Meanwhile, Karun Kittisaporn, permanent secretary of the Commerce Ministry, yesterday called a meeting with high level officials of the agency.

He said the ministry needed to review its work, particularly what sort of trade policy is best for the Kingdom.

Karun said it was too early to say whether Thailand should proceed with Thai-US free-trade negotiations, for which he is the country's chief negotiator. He said the Commerce Ministry needed to confer with all other government agencies involved in the talks before deciding whether they should be pursued. Also, he said he was unsure whether he would retain the position of chief negotiator because he had been appointed to the role by the former government.

Speaking on the recent reshuffle of high-level ministry officials that was approved by the former cabinet, Karun said all transfers had been put on hold until they could be reviewed by a new cabinet.

Wichit Chaitrong,

Petchanet Pratruangkrai

The Nation