But as the protesters braved the heat of early summer others said more would be required to remove caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

"What you're witnessing here is the start of a new era," Sarocha Pornudomsak, a leading member of the alliance, said through a loudspeaker in front of the besieged office of the prime minister.

She was speaking shortly after 10am, an hour after the protesters marched peacefully from Sanam Luang to Government House.

The protest also marked the end of Thaksin's five years in office, Sarocha said.

PAD speaker Suriyasai Katasila claimed on the same mobile stage that 500,000 protesters had joined the march, but he obviously inflated the numbers.

"It's more like 20,000," said one protester, sitting just metres away from Suriyasai, while a friend next to him put the number at no more than 200,000.

Buri Ram Senator Karun Sai-ngam was more concerned about how many more days the protesters would have to endure the extreme heat and discomfort.

Additional strategies might be needed to bring the Thaksin era to a real end, he said.

"We need more protesters and the protest should spread to other parts of Bangkok. I think the PAD and the crowd will have to sort it out," he said.

Earlier in the morning as the protesters reached Government House, Maj-General Chamlong Srimuang, another PAD leader, said if Thaksin was finding it too bureaucratic to resign, he would lend him a hand to speed up the process.

"I will guide him through the resignation process and see to it that it's done," Chamlong said, as the crowd broke into rapturous applause.

Thaksin, who is on the campaign trail in Ubon Ratchathani, joined yesterday's Cabinet meeting via teleconference.

"If you want to be a government without an office and float around continuously, so be it," Sarocha told the upbeat crowd.

Laothai Nilnuan, an activist working with farmers from Sakon Nakhon, doubted Thaksin could survive. "Even if he stays on, it won't mean anything. He can only go down," Laothai said.

Even some of the rural poor are beginning to understand why the urban middle class is opposing Thaksin, the activist said.

But the power of Thaksin's populist policies could not be discounted, he said. The 20,000-strong Assembly of the Poor has not officially opposed Thaksin.

"They're like this despite the fact that Thaksin has been postponing the promise [to help them] for five years now," Laothai said.

As flag-waving protesters marched in the morning, some expressed strong denunciation of the embattled premier. "Thick-faced Thaksin! You're real cheat!" one screamed.

Others, like Anand Sudkham, from Nakhon Ratchasima, said they were former Thai Rak Thai members.

Anand, a chicken farmer, said he had faxed the party his resignation last week.

Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation