Key heading into summit protest zone

Hundreds of Thai anti-government protesters yesterday blocked the entrance to the venue where Prime Minister John Key is meant to meet other leaders for the East Asian Summit this weekend.

The noisy protest group managed to evade police blockades and set up a confrontation with Thai police and military outside a conference centre at the beach resort in Pattaya.

The protests call for the return of Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister removed from office in a bloodless coup d'etat in 2006.

Suthep Thaugsuban, the Thai deputy prime minister, told the protesters that the summit would go ahead and officials were negotiating with protest leaders to allow access to the summit.

Current Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had already declared yesterday a public holiday, extending the Thai holiday of Songkran to six days, and supporters of Mr Thaksin have been warned a state of emergency will be declared if protests turn violent and disrupt the summit.

Mr Thaksin's 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 was a heavy police and military presence around the Thai beach resort and this is set to increase as leaders, including Mr Key, attend meetings today and tomorrow.

The meetings are expected to focus on global economic turmoil, with leaders from the 10 Asean nations as well as Korea, China, Japan, India and Australia attending.

Mr Key said: "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."

The G20 nations put together a rescue plan involving over one trillion 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 said he was looking forward to discussing the issue further with 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 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."

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

- NZPA