Artist Dao Trong Cuong prepared the colourful portraits of leaders attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Hanoi, rendering the likes of George W. Bush and Russia's Vladimir Putin in rubies and sapphires.

But the unexpected September 19 Thai coup left Cuong scrambling to put together a new masterpiece.

"Before the coup, we had finished Thaksin's portrait because we had started early in the year," he told AFP.

Retired general Surayud Chulanont was installed as premier on October 1, leaving Cuong with just a month-and-a-half to craft the new prime minister's face in gems using photographs from websites and local newspapers.

"That left me very little time to do it," he complained, adding that Surayud's portrait, completed on November 6, was the last one he did.

Surayud, a famously modest man who arrived in Hanoi on Friday to reassure world leaders that all is well in the post-putsch kingdom, will head back to Bangkok with his own gemstone portrait worth over 3,500 dollars.

But with the new Thai government reluctant to take charge of the likeness of the leader they deposed, Thaksin's portrait may be stranded in Hanoi.

"I think our plane will be fully loaded," Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram told AFP with a sly chuckle when asked if the Thai delegation would take the artwork back to give to Thaksin's family.

Thaksin was in New York when the tanks rolled into Bangkok, and flew to self-imposed exile in London, where he keeps a home.

However his globetrotting has since taken him to Hong Kong and the Indonesian resort island of Bali, leaving Cuong a little perplexed about where to send the forlorn portrait.

"For now, we will keep it for ourselves but who knows, maybe I'll give it to Thaksin one day," he shrugged. "He is a businessman like me."

Agence France-Presse