Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat today scotched speculation of his immediate resignation or a snap election, saying he intended to host a regional summit in Bangkok in December.
"The government has a duty to carry on the policies and tasks that are coming up," he told a news conference after a hastily convened meeting of the five other parties in his beleaguered coalition government.
As well as the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) heads of government meeting in mid-December, Mr Somchai cited the funeral in November of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's sister and the revered monarch's 81st birthday on December 5th.
The coalition meeting was triggered by army chief Anupong Paochinda saying yesterday that Mr Somchai should step down to take responsibility for bloody clashes between police and anti-government protesters last week.
With the heads of the Navy, Air Force and police sitting next to him in a live television interview, Mr Anupong said: "If I were prime minister, I would have resigned".
He also stressed that the army was not about to take over only two years after its removal of Thaksin Shinawatra.
But analysts read his remarks as an attempt by the army, which is under heavy pressure from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) street movement, to undermine Mr Somchai so much that he jumps without the need for a full-blown coup.
MrSomchai, Thaksin's brother-in-law and a political novice, came to power in September after a court removed his predecessor, Samak Sundaravej, for hosting a cooking show on commercial television while in office.
Few analysts expected him to last more than a few months, and Mr Anupong's comments are only likely to hasten that demise although the tactic appears not to have worked - for now.
Reuters