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Thailand's military coup leaders will choose a new prime minister within two weeks and step back from power, army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin said on Wednesday.

Speaking less than 24 hours after he led a bloodless coup to oust billionaire Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Sonthi also said it would take a year to produce a new constitution to facilitate fresh general elections.

The military leadership was poring over dossiers of civilian candidates who support "democracy and a constitutional monarchy" to replace Thaksin.

"We have two weeks. After two weeks, we step aside," Sonthi told a news conference, speaking as head of an interim Political Reform Council run by the military, which says it acted because there was no other way out of a protracted political crisis.

The new cabinet would form a special committee to draw up a new constitution and submit it to a referendum, after which new elections could be held, he said.

"It will take a year to draft a new constitution," he said.

Political reform is considered essential by Thaksin's foes to allow what they say are supposed to be independent state agencies such as the election commission to be purged of his allies.

Not a shot was fired in the coup and the streets of Bangkok were quiet on Wednesday with very little military presence except around Government House and nearby army headquarters.
 
"The situation in Thailand is very calm. There is no threat to tourists," a Thomas Cook spokesman said in Germany.

Thailand attracts about 12 million visitors a year.

Concerns about a conflict or even a counter-coup by Thaksin's supporters have appeared to evaporate. Sonthi has invited the ousted leader to return to Thailand, promising his assets would not be touched.

"Thaksin is a Thai and a fellow countryman and there will be no problem should he decide to return. We are like brothers," said Sonthi, overwhelmingly Buddhist Thailand's first Muslim army chief.

National police chief Kowit Wattana said Thaksin would not face any new probes, but he would have to answer cases already filed. These include charges of election fraud and allegations that he insulted revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Thaksin has said nothing in public since he tried to thwart the coup with a televised statement from New York where he had been attending the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said there had been no requests from Thaksin or his entourage for any meetings with British government ministers or officials.

The spokesman was not aware how long Thaksin was expected to stay, but noted that he had relatives in Britain. One of Thaksin's daughters is studying at a university in London.

Leaders around the world expressed shock and disappointment at the sudden overthrow of the Thaksin administration, whose huge popularity in the countryside gave it two landslide election wins.

The US, EU, Australia and New Zealand have condemned as undemocratic Thailand's first coup in 15 years and its 18th since it became a constitutional monarchy in 1932.

But analysts said although the outside world might view it as a step back, it could prove to be a step forward if it is indeed the way out of what many saw as an intractable political deadlock threatening the stability of the nation.

(China Daily September 21, 2006)