Bangkok on alert for possible attacks - general

BANGKOK, Feb 27 (Reuters) Thailand's military-appointed government has put Bangkok on security alert after intelligence reports warned of possible attacks on the capital, a general said today.

Lieutenant General Prayud Janocha, who is responsible for security in Bangkok, said his troops were on a ''24-hour watch'' ahead of the Makha Bucha Buddhist holiday this weekend.

He said the military's analysis also pointed to threats on March 13-15, the anniversary of a Muslim Malay separatist group, and a Thai water festival in April.

''The measures followed analyses from our intelligence units which anticipate that attacks might come on those days,'' Prayud told reporters.

He said hundreds of troops were on standby and could be deployed quickly to Bangkok, where a series of bombs killed three people and wounded 38 on New Year's Eve.

The embassies of Australia, Canada and Britain last week issued travel advisories for their citizens to be on extra alert.

Defence Minister Boonrawd Somtas said any violence was likely to be engineered by those ousted from power in the bloodless September coup that removed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

''Politics will lead to unrest in Bangkok,'' said Boonrawd, who only last week had pointed the finger at southern Muslim militants.

''Our analysis suggests that if political activities pick up momentum, it could get out of control and violence could take place,'' he told reporters.

After the New Year blasts, the government suggested the attacks were linked to politicians who had lost out in the coup.

However, some investigators said later that the coordinated explosions might have been the work of Muslim militants from the far south, where more than 2,000 people have died in three years of separatist violence.

So far, the unrest has been limited to the immediate vicinity of the three southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, where most of the population are ethnic Malay Muslims.

Today the coup leaders ordered the police and Interior Ministry to take legal action against Chaturon Chaisang, leader of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party, for defying a ban on political activities.

Chaturon held a small rally last week in Khon Kaen, a northeastern stronghold of Thai Rak Thai, and planned another rally in the north next week.

''We have instructed the police to collect evidence and to proceed under the law,'' Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd, spokesman for the Council for National Security, told reporters.

REUTERS MS KN1919