"They say they are going to restore democracy in the near future, and I think it's important that they do so," said Clinton as he toured a village on the resort isle of Phuket.

The coup leaders, who ousted twice-elected prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra on September 19, have promised to hold elections by October 2007.

Clinton was in Thailand to assess reconstruction work nearly two years after the Indian Ocean tsunami devastated the coastal region of southern Thailand, killing some 5,400 people.

The former president, who is currently acting as a special envoy of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for tsunami aid, is on a tour of areas affected by the disaster, which killed a total of about 220,000 people in a dozen countries.

When asked if the coup would affect his work in Thailand, Clinton replied: "I don't think so."

He said the task of helping people left homeless by the tsunami was not complete as only 30 per cent of them were once again living in permanent homes.

Clinton, who was visiting Hin Look Dieu village in northern Phuket, said everyone, including sea gypsies with no land rights, "has the right to rebuilt their home".

He spent about half an hour chatting with villagers and officials, who chose the Moken sea-gypsy community as an example of how mangrove forest can reduce the impact of a tsunami as well as how strong community work can speed recovery.

He praised the village's 195 residents for preserving the mangrove forest, which reduced the impact of the waves.

"Thank you for setting such a good example," said Clinton. "A lot of people don't understand how important the forest is."

Though 10 houses and all of Hin Look Dieu's small fishing boats were destroyed in the Boxing Day tsunami, nobody was killed as the mangrove forest acted as a natural buffer to the waves.

Clinton added that if New Orleans had preserved its wetland forests, the impact from Hurricane Katrina would have been reduced by half.

Hin Look Dieu is inside Sirinart National Park, and although villagers claim to have been living there for nearly a hundred years they have no title to the land they live on.

Through the National Tsunami Land Tenure Sub-committee, an agreement has been reached between the villagers and government agencies to allow them to remain there legally for at least five years so long as they take part in restoring the mangrove forest.

"It's up to their performance," said Somsook Boonyabancha, director of the Community Organisation Development Institute, one of the organisations working in the village.

Somsook said the tsunami had been a blessing in disguise for many Moken people because their plight had been highlighted by it.

Boonchuay Vari, the community leader who was chosen to welcome and show Clinton around, said he had only learnt four days ago that someone very important was coming and had been unaware who Bill Clinton was or what he looked like.

Clinton, who left for Indonesia's Aceh province yesterday afternoon, took the opportunity to launch a multi-agency, multi-country environmental programme called the "Mangroves for the Future Initiative" by planting a mangrove tree.