The head of the police's own working panel on reform described the committee's draft recommendations as "too academic and not feasible at this time".

Charnwut Watcharapuk, deputy police commissioner-general, said yesterday: "I have had meetings with all police commanders and we unanimously agree the police won't be able to operate if that draft is enacted."

Charnwut was appointed by the acting chief of police General Seripisut Temiyavej to make recommendations on force restructuring.

He said the prime ministerial committee "clearly did not understand the police and current police work".

"Many recommendations in the draft are good but not feasible at this time. Perhaps they will work in the future," he said.

Charnwut is opposed to decentralising command of the police. He said this took away the national police chief's mandate over budget reviews and regional and metropolitan officer transfers.

He questioned why the prime ministerial committee had "under-represented" the police on the Royal Thai Police Policy Commission. He is unhappy the committee recommended a civilian be secretary-general of that body.

"Besides, the [prime ministerial committee] draft will require non-commissioned police officers to have only one rank. That will cause problems in the chain of command. We need a more appropriate number of police ranks, otherwise supervision will be difficult," Charnwut said. An informed source said the Charnwut panel had been busy over the past three weeks and Charnwut himself said yesterday it would submit its recommendations to Surayud Chulanont early next month "so that he can compare the two".

Meanwhile, Justice Ministry deputy permanent secretary Kittiphong Kittayarak welcomed the Charnwut panel's efforts.

Kittiphong is secretary of the prime ministerial committee.

"It's good other parties have made recommendations. The police is a big organisation. We need to listen to various ideas and it's important police officers agree with the restructuring principles," Kittiphong said.

He said the Charnwut draft could be submitted along with that of his committee for Surayud's consideration.

Kittiphong explained the prime ministerial committee recommendations were "being improved" and some contentious issues had been removed. He said recommendations the national police chief not nominate personnel for key transfers had gone.

"The government is overhauling the country's judicial system. All judicial agencies - not just the police - are going to undergo reform to best provide justice for the people," he said.