Martial law to be lifted : Samak

Samak said the restrictions were no longer needed.

"At the meeting of the National Security Council today, we agreed to lift martial law in 179 districts of 31 provinces," he told reporters after the meeting.

Martial law however will remain throughout the three southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, which are in the grip of a separatist insurgency, and in four districts of southern Songkhla province.

The law was imposed after the coup de'tat against Thaksin government in 2006.

During Surayud government, installed shortly after the coup, the military gradually lifted it, region by region, but when elections were held last December, nearly half of Thailand's 76 provinces remained partially or completely under martial law.

"The reason we are lifting it is because there is another law, the Internal Security Act," he said.

Martial law could take months to actually be lifted, as a new law will have to be passed and granted royal approval.