Bomb explodes outside house of Thai king's adviser

BANGKOK, Mar 9 (Reuters) A small bomb exploded outside the residence of the chief adviser to Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej today, slightly wounding a Canadian and a Briton, police said.

They said the bomb, hidden under a stone bench near the security booth in front of the residence of former Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda, sent glass flying and damaged three cars parked in front of the house. The guard house was unoccupied at the time.

Police said flying glass injured two men, a 28-year-old Briton and a Canadian aged 51, who were passing by the house in an old part of town popular with tourists.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra denounced the as yet unexplained attack.

''We can't yield to bandits,'' Thaksin said during a sweep of Chantaburi province east of Bangkok for a snap election he called for April 2 in a counter-attack against a campaign to oust him.

Since the anti-Thaksin campaign started last September, there have been several small bombs in Bangkok, but all the others went off during the night and nobody was hurt.

The previous explosion hit a Buddhist meditation centre associated with a key Thaksin critic.

Prem, who was inside the house when the bomb exploded, served as prime minister for eight years in 1980s and is still a pillar of Thai politics who mediates rifts among politicians and soldiers.

The 85-year-old retired general who chairs the 18-member privy council that advises Thailand's revered king, was not perturbed by the incident, a cabinet minister said.

''He just wondered why a bomb was put in front his house,'' Defence Minister Thammarak Isarangura told reporters.

REUTERS SI ND1438