He made the promise during his meetings with leading "co-developers of the country" in Sakon Nakhon and Buri Ram yesterday. The term is a euphemism referring to former members of the now-defunct Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) who ended their fight in the jungle and surrendered to authorities.

The PM's trip is viewed as an attempt to win the hearts of village activists of the region who long have been allied with the Thai Rak Thai Party of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Surayud, who was appointed interim premier on October 1, said yesterday that previous administrations had promised them farmland, cattle and compensation but failed to realise the pledge.

"The authorities promised to help them in exchange for their involvement in developing the country. But they failed to do as they said," the prime minister said.

Surayud also confided with the ex-communists that although he had no political ambitions, he agreed to become the government head to help solve the country's problems.

"I will perform my duties as an ordinary man. In fact, I never wanted to become a national leader and I will never contest an election," the prime minister said.

"My father and my [maternal] grandfather both died, and their bodies have never been retrieved. That's why I have intended to stay away from politics. But I'm glad to serve the country as an ordinary guy. And I need help from all Thais as the government can't do it alone," he said.

Surayud's father Payom, once an Army lieutenant-colonel, joined the CPT when Surayud was a boy. The father of Surayud's mother, also a soldier, took part in a failed royalist rebellion not long after the country began experimenting with democracy in the 1930s.

In 1982, the government of Prem Tinsulanonda granted amnesty to communist insurgents, causing thousands of them to come out of the jungle. The Prem administration promised to allocate them plots of land and tools for farming as a reward for giving up the fighting and reconciling with the government.

Maj-General Ninnart Biewkhaimuk, a close aide to the PM, said his trip to the Northeast was not aimed at "defusing possible threats" by local activists, as had been speculated, but rather an attempt to address their unsolved problems and sufferings.

"The government only has 51 weeks remaining, so they have to hurry up," he said, referring to the one-year timeframe the administration was expected to serve before an elected one takes over.

The premier also said yesterday that his government would try to discourage the taste for luxuries and would "not stick too much with Western culture".

He reiterated that his administration would not scrap the previous government's projects that prove to be beneficial, although they may be "adjusted for betterment and transparency". Those include the universal healthcare programme, for which patients no longer have to pay Bt30 for each visit.

Surayud yesterday met about 20 leading ex-communists at the Krit Srivara Camp in Sakon Nakhon late in the morning. Later in the afternoon, the PM flew to Buri Ram, where he met some 30 former communist insurgents from seven provinces - Buri Ram, Surin, Ubon Ratchathani, Sa Kaew, Yasothon, Nakhon Ratchasima and Chachoengsao.

Senior local officials, including provincial governors, also took part in the meetings.