Four soldiers wanted in Thai PM assassination plot

BANGKOK, Sep 4 (Reuters) Thai police issued a warrant today to interrogate four soldiers in connection with a plot to blow up Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra that critics and the media have suggested was an elaborate political stunt.

The four -- a major-general, colonel, lieutenant-colonel and sergeant, all on active duty -- were ordered to come in for questioning on Thursday or face arrest, police said.

''They are suspected of having conspired with another suspect in a premeditated murder attempt and illegal possession of explosive materials,'' Lieutenant-General Montri Jamroon, who heads the police investigation team, told reporters.

Montri said forensic evidence led police to believe the four suspects had been looking for ways to kill Thaksin. They had been seen alongside routes taken by his motorcade in the past few months, he said.

Lieutenant Thawatchai Klinchana, who was charged with illegal possession of explosives after being arrested in a car near Thaksin's Bangkok home last month, would face an additional charge of attempted premeditated murder, Montri said.

Shortly after the Aug. 24 incident, Thaksin himself said four serving and retired soldiers had been behind the plot, which coincided with the first day of campaigning for an Oct.

15 general election.

Although his Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party is widely expected to win a comfortable majority, it remains unclear whether Thaksin will become prime minister again due to a long-running street campaign to remove him from office.

Differing police accounts of the size, complexity and readiness of the bomb they say was found in Thawatchai's car sparked suggestions in the domestic media the incident had been staged to bolster Thaksin's support in the provinces.

The billionaire telecoms tycoon-turned-politician called a snap election in April to counter the Bangkok-based campaign against him.

However, a poll boycott by the main opposition parties rendered the election inconclusive and courts later annulled it, leaving Thailand with no functioning parliament and a caretaker government unable to make major policy decisions.

REUTERS KR DS1233