Tej resigns because of wife: Samak

Speaking live on Radio Thailand Thursday morning, Samak said Tej sent him a letter, explaining that many sides pressured him to resign.

Samak quoted Tej as saying in the letter that Tej's wife could not tolerate him working with this government.

"He used the word 'collapse'," Samak said using the "collapse" word in English. "She collapses at the thought that Tej works for Samak," the prime minister added.

Samak thanked Tej for having helped the government work and said he had no conflicts with Tej.

He said he would send flowers to Tej's wife as well.

Tej yesterday handed in his resignation to Samak in a serious blow to the administration, Foreign Ministry officials said.

Sources said Samak was desperately trying to get Tej to change his mind. He asked Tej to wait at least until the present political crisis was over, a source said.

Neither Tej nor the Foreign Ministry spokesman could be reached for comment.In an interview taped last Friday for "World Beat with Suthichai Yoon,"

Tej hinted to the Nation Group's editor-in-chief that his days at the Foreign Ministry were numbered.

"I never felt pressured to do something against my will. But if I were pressured to do something against my conscience or something that was not good for the country, I would resign," Tej said.

Tej, who has yet to complete his familiarisation tour of Asean countries and was scheduled to fly to Vietnam next Wednesday, told Suthichai: "I don't know if I'm still going to be around."

The career diplomat, who became an adviser to the Office of HM's Principal Private Secretary shortly after his retirement in 2004, told Suthichai he did not have much choice but to take up the ministerial post.

Tej is leaving it after holding it for less than two months.

Tej said Samak had made a request to His Majesty the King that he be the foreign minister. "I am a civil servant. I am not in a position to decline. It was my duty," Tej said.

Tej's resignation came one day after his political secretary, Poksak Nilubol, quit. Poksak had resigned reportedly over the government's handling of the crisis.

In the interview to be aired on Modernine TV at 11pm tonight, the former permanent secretary of the Foreign Ministry said his most urgent task was to restore ties with Cambodia.