• 
• 
• 

Thaksin on Saturday cancelled an appearance scheduled for Monday at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong amid threats by Thailand to seek his extradition.

The deposed former Thai leader was quoted saying he did not want his presence to damage bilateral relations between China and Thailand and claimed he was "very annoyed by the hoo-ha" over his scheduled speech.

However, the Foreign Correspondents Club, which has sold more than 100 tickets for the event, told government-run radio station RTHK Sunday the speech might still be delivered by video.

Representatives of Thaksin were trying to set up an audio-video link from a location outside Hong Kong so that the event could go ahead, a club spokesman said.

Thaksin was due to deliver a luncheon speech titled "Financial Crisis, Political Uncertainty: Lessons from Thailand" in his capacity as founding chairman of the Building a Better Future Foundation.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva instructed the foreign ministry and Attorney-General's office to try to extradite Thaksin after learning that he planned to give the speech.