BANGKOK - Thailand's army chief stepped in Wednesday to end a spiraling political crisis, telling the prime minister to call new elections and ordering protesters to end their siege of Bangkok's main airport.
General Anupong Paojinda denied he was staging a coup, but with the airport and government offices now in the control of demonstrators and lawlessness spreading he said premier Somchai Wongsawat should dissolve parliament.
The plight of thousands of foreign tourists left stranded at the three-billion-dollar Suvarnabhumi Airport underlined the turmoil threatening Thailand's vital tourism industry and hitting the economy.
"We will send him (Somchai) a letter to inform that he must dissolve the house and call new elections," Anupong told a news conference after an urgent meeting of military and business leaders to address the crisis.
"This is not a coup," the army chief said, dressed in his uniform. "The government still has full authority. These points are the way to solve the problem which has plunged the country into a deep crisis."
"As army chief, if I launch a coup the problems would be solved once and for all. But there would be a lot of consequences including the international reaction," he added.
Somchai arrived home from a foreign trip about an hour after the army chief spoke out but the premier -- the brother-in-law of ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra -- said he had made no decision on elections.
"I don't know... I have not yet made any decision," Somchai told reporters at the airport in the northern city of Chiang Mai, where his flight was diverted amid the chaos, before being whisked away by aides.
The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) -- a coalition of royalists, Bangkok's old elite and the middle class that wants to topple the government -- stormed Suvarnabhumi Airport late Tuesday in a fresh twist to the crisis.
As they tightened their grip on the facility on Wednesday, two people were hurt in a blast at the airport and thousands of travellers were left in limbo on the third day of PAD's renewed protest campaign.
"The PAD must disperse immediately from every place they occupy," Anupong said.
Protest leaders quickly rejected the army chief's statement and said they would stay at the airport, where demonstrators began to take up positions inside the terminal after most passengers were finally evacuated.
"The solution is not the dissolution of parliament. If premier Somchai (Wongsawat) resigns then we will talk again about whether we will negotiate," core PAD leader Pibhop Dhongchai said at the terminal.
The alliance launched its campaign in May, accusing Somchai's government of being a corrupt puppet of the charismatic Thaksin, who was toppled in a 2006 coup and remains in exile after being convicted in absentia for corruption.
Its latest actions infuriated tourists at Suvarnabhumi -- a hub for travel throughout Southeast Asia -- which remained shut on Wednesday, with airport director Saereerat Prasutanont saying 3,000 people were still there.
Angry travellers had earlier began leaving on buses provided by airport authorities, but some remained.
"I went to ask the staff at the counters but no one was there. Then I didn't know that they had buses for the tourists so I am still stuck here," said Andre Weise, 37-year-old tourist from Germany.
As the passengers trickled out of the airport -- the world's 17th busiest -- many of the 8,000 PAD demonstrators who had been rallying outside entered the terminal moved in, setting up makeshift food stalls and floor mats.
The government has tried to avoid a repeat of clashes between protesters and police on October 7 that left two people dead and nearly 500 injured, but it has merely fuelled its problems.
Somchai's administration has been effectively paralysed since protesters occupied the prime ministerial offices in central Bangkok in August, forcing him to work from makeshift premises at the old Don Mueang airport.