The agreement was reached after a meeting of the feuding sides, which was mediated by the police.

Metropolitan Police Division 2 deputy commander Maj-General Amnuay Nimmano yesterday said all the relevant parties would meet again for further negotiations although the date had yet to be fixed.

Also present at yesterday's meeting were representatives from State Railway of Thailand (SRT), which owns the area in question, the Legal Execution Department and the Law Society of Thailand.

The disputed area is a zone inside the Sunday Market, which is located right next to famous Chatuchak Weekend Market.

The land dispute was threatening to spill out of control on Thursday when the legitimate leaseholder, the Thanasarnsombat Pattana Company, dispatched more than 100 armed men to remove stalls in the zone while the stall-owners angrily pelted the demolition workers with debris.

The stall-owners, who have operated at the market for more than 10 years, have obtained a court injunction barring any forced removal and the cutting off of the electricity and water in the zone until negotiations, scheduled for February 7, are conducted. Thanasarnsombat Pattana is armed with the lease contract granted by SRT, which owns the area.

The SRT used to lease the zone to Sunday Holdings until it went bankrupt in 1998. The SRT then leased the area to Thanasarnsombat Pattana.

However, hundreds of stall-owners refused to move out even though the lease between Thanasarnsombat Pattana and the SRT took effect back in March.

They went to court and obtained the injunction.

Thanasarnsombat Pattana's lawyer Boonlert Jansit yesterday said his company would remove stalls in other zones at the Sunday Market first, because the disputed area focused on only one

zone.