Stop interfering, Thaksin tells army

He was speaking in a much anticipated video message to some 50,000 supporters as the opposition Democrat Party inched closer to forming a new government. It was a recorded speech, not a live phone-in as earlier expected.

"We're now in the middle of a coup d'état aimed at destroying democracy," he said, in reference to recent top brass involvement in the formation of a new government coalition.

He also accused the Constitution Court, which dissolved the pro-Thaksin People Power Party early in December for electoral fraud, of tampering with the Thai political system.

"Our system has lost a lot of credibility because we rely on a belief which is not true ... The system can't work because there are people distorting it, and society can't sustain that," he said.

"Let those who are interfering step back and allow the system to work. Let us know victory and defeat."

On a personal note, Thaksin said the root cause of all the problems he was facing today was that he had been vilified as an anti-monarchist and unlike even a cornered dog had nowhere to stand. "Is this what you want to do?" he asked his opponents.

Veera Musigapong, once a Thai Rak Thai executive and now co-host of the "Truth Today" television programme, earlier said that Thaksin's failure to make a live phone-in was due to the blocking of the pro-Thaksin MV TV cable-television channel since Friday night by his opponents.