Today is my day as prime minister : Samak

"I am the real prime minister!" Samak said over reports that Thaksin was once again the government's boss. "Is that all you can think of? How shameful. How can you say that there are two prime ministers?"

Thaksin's homecoming after 17 months in exile on Thursday was widely seen as a return to the centre of Thai politics.

"I am no one's nominee,'' Samak said as he headed off on his first official visit to Laos on Friday.

Earlier Samak met Christopher Hill, the US pointman for East Asian affairs and told him that Thaksin will not run his government from behind the scenes.

Samak denied suggestions that he is Thaksin's puppet, and told Hill that he hold the reins of government, according to his spokeswoman Suparat Nakbunnam.

"Today the critics say that the real prime minister has returned to Thailand, but today is my day as prime minister," Samak told Hill during their meeting, according to the spokeswoman.

Hill met with Samak just hours before he made his first official visit overseas as head of government, travelling to neighbouring Laos.

Hill also gave Samak a message to deliver from the United States to the ruling military junta in Myanmar, Thailand's neighbour and a key trading partner, she said.

Suparat declined to give details of the message, but said Samak was likely to visit Burma next week.