BANGKOK: Thailand’s Prime Minister today urged anti-government protesters to end a crippling picket in Bangkok’s tourist hub but stopped short of ordering their forced dispersal.

The “Red Shirts”, who are demanding elections to pave the way for the return of fugitive deposed Premier Thaksin Shinawatra, escalated their three-week rally on Saturday, massing in the main shopping and luxury hotel district. With businesses and tourism threatened, the government banned the gathering under a strict security law invoked to cover the protests, and threatened protesters with a year in jail. But thousands of Reds, most of whom have travelled from Thailand’s poorer rural northern provinces, defied the warning and refused to budge overnight.

Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva urged the Red Shirts to return to their main protest site in the capital’s government quarter.