Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said on Saturday he would crack down on anti-government protests that have ignited fears of a military coup.
"I will not yield to you," Samak said on national television a day after the resignation of a cabinet minister that was meant to head off street protests similar to the campaign against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra before a 2006 coup.
He threatened police and military action against protesters if they did not leave the Makawan Rangsan Bridge near the gilded Grand Palace in the heart of Bangkok.
The street protests began last Sunday when 5,000 opponents of the coalition government which backs Thaksin held a rally in the capital.
The prime minister has accused the anti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which vowed on Friday to step up protests against the government, of damaging the country.
"You have broken the law. I have a duty to deal with you. You cannot stay there. I will take you out," said Samak, who leads a pro-Thaksin coalition government elected last December.
At the rally, speakers shrugged off Samak's threat and vowed to stay put as the crowd swelled to around 5,000 from just over 1,000 earlier on Saturday.
Deputy Police spokesman Surapol Thuanthong said protest leaders would be ordered to end the rally to ease traffic congestion and there would be negotiations for them to move away peacefully.
Several hundred riot police with shields and batons took up position at barricades later on Saturday, although the mood in the crowd appeared festive.
"What we know for sure is that if any violence occurs, it will come only from the government side, not ours," Somsak Kosaisuk, one of five PAD leaders, told Reuters.
