Thais demand Thaksin extradition

Cambodia has received an extradition request from Thailand for former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Three Thai diplomats have given extradition papers to officials at Cambodia's foreign affairs ministry.

Cambodia has previously said it would reject any such request and a formal rejection is anticipated.

Mr Thaksin, sentenced in a conflict of interest case in Thailand, was offered a home and a job in neighbouring Cambodia, to Thai chagrin.

The BBC's South East Asia correspondent Rachel Harvey says the extradition request was widely expected, and is likely to further escalate a diplomatic row between the neighbours.

She says Mr Thaksin's presence just across the border is a source of profound irritation and potential concern for the current Thai government.

'Political' charge

Cambodia's expected rejection of the request is based on the view that charges levelled against Mr Thaksin in Thailand were politically motivated.

"Thaksin's conviction is caused by the coup in September 2006, when he was the prime minister of Thailand whom Thai people voted in with an overwhelming majority in accordance with democracy," Cambodia's foreign minister Hor Namhong has said.

In Bangkok, Thailand's foreign ministry said it was waiting for official confirmation from the embassy in Phnom Penh that Cambodia had denied its request.

"If it is true, we will consider the next measures to take," the ministry's deputy spokesman Thani Thongpakdi told AFP.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has said the country may terminate its extradition treaty with Cambodia if Phnom Penh refuses to send Mr Thaksin home to face justice.

Brother enemy

Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa has expressed the region's concern at such an argument breaking out within the bounds of the supposedly fraternal Association of South East Asian Nations.

"Tension between Cambodia and Thailand is something that we're following extremely closely with a great deal of concern, to be honest, because it affects two fellow members of Asean, and we see the deterioration of relations to be in total disconnect with what ought to mark how Asean member countries ought to engage with one another.

"This spat, this division has to end, and we must return to the usual path which is friendship within Asean," Mr Natalegawa said.

Mr Thaksin arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday to take up a job as economic adviser to the government.

The move has deepened a diplomatic rift with Thailand, where Mr Thaksin faces a jail term for corruption if he returns.

Having already withdrawn its ambassador from Cambodia, the Thai cabinet has now agreed to scrap joint plans for trade and oil exploration.

Ties between Cambodia and Thailand have also been tense recently due to a series of disputes around a cross-border temple complex.

Mr Thaksin, a former telecoms billionaire, is in self-imposed exile and has spent much of his time in Dubai.

Thailand's government is outraged at the Cambodian move, and at Cambodia's apparent rejection of Thailand's judicial imperative to send Mr Thaksin to jail.

The Thai government and its supporters also fear that Mr Thaksin could use his new home just across the border as a campaign base.

Mr Abhisit's government was appointed after defections in parliament followed a period of military rule since the coup in 2006 which deposed Mr Thaksin.