Yangon, August 25:

Thailand’s prime minister today said that rumours of a coup within the ruling military junta in neighbouring Myanmar were baseless.

“We have received confirmation from all sources that the rumour of a coup is not true. The rumour was spread by some faction, but it is not true,” Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told a news conference in Bangkok. Rumours that ruling junta chairman Sr Gen Than Shwe was deposed by his deputy, Gen Maung Aye, and a group of military leaders spread rapidly after a story on Tuesday night on the British Broadcasting Corp’s Burmese programme, quoting a resident on the Myanmar-China border.

The person told the BBC that Than Shwe was forced to retire by army Commander in Chief Maung Aye because of “nepotism and corruption.” The government has not officially denied the rumour, but an official close to a military leader said yesterday that the “news was

absolutely untrue.”