John Key

By Ian Llewellyn of NZPA

Pattaya, Thailand, April 10 NZPA - Waves of protest against the Thai government are engulfing Thailand as Prime Minister John Key prepares to arrive for the East Asian Summit over the weekend.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has already declared Friday to be a public holiday, extending the Thai holiday of Songkran to six days, and supporters of the previous prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra have been warned a state of emergency will be declared if protests turn violent and disrupt the summit.

Mr Thaksin was removed from office after protesters occupied Bangkok's airports late last year and disrupted the previous attempt to hold the summit.

He is now a fugitive living overseas, but the boot is on the other foot. His red t-shirt-clad supporters have ground the Thai capital and other centres to a halt, blocking traffic and at one stage attacking the car of the new prime minister as he drove through Pattaya, demanding his resignation and the dissolution of parliament.

There is a heavy police and military presence around the Thai beach resort, and this is set to increase as leaders, including Mr Key, join for informal gatherings on Saturday and formal meetings on Sunday.

While the political turmoil in Thailand threatens to grab the headlines, it is the global economic turmoil which will most concern the leaders from the 10 Asean nations as well as Korea, China, Japan, India and Australia.

Mr Key told NZPA before leaving for Asia that plans to tackle the financial crisis and resulting recession would top the agenda.

"You would expect the conversation to be dominated by the global economy -- some of the players would have recently returned from the G20 meeting, so it will be an opportunity to exchange some views," Mr Key said.

The G20 nations put together an ambitious rescue plan involving trillions of dollars, bailing out financial institutions and helping less developed nations cope with the fallout.

Some Asian nations are being cautious in their response and Mr Key he was looking forward to discussing the issue further with his Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd.

Asean recently signed a trade deal with Australia and New Zealand, adding to similar deals with other Asian nations such as China.

Mr Key said it was hard to tell whether anything concrete would come of the East Asia Summit so quickly after the recent trade deal and the G20 meeting.

"There will be healthy discussion and support to improve economic opportunities in the region ... In particular on trade we will be working to get support for not erecting barriers."

For Mr Key it will be another chance to try and start building the links and networks that his predecessor Helen Clark successfully did during her nine years in office.

One thing that will make this easier for Mr Key is that there are a lot of new faces around the table at the fourth East Asian Summit. Besides Mr Key replacing Clark and Mr Rudd taking over from John Howard, there are new leaders from Malaysia, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.

After the summit ends on Sunday, Mr Key flies out to China for his first visit to the Asian economic giant.

NZPA PAR il mfc