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Thailand's finance minister said Monday the government would take all means within the law to prevent violence ahead as backers of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra prepare major protests.

Thaksin's supporters say they expect hundreds of thousands of people, many of them rural poor, to gather in Bangkok on Saturday in the wake of a court decision that seized US$1.4 billion of the deposed tycoon's fortune.

"There is a very small minority who is trying to cause instability through, frankly speaking, potentially violent acts," Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij told the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand.

Korn, in remarks videocast in Washington, said that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva respected the right to peaceful protest and would be "as patient as all governments need be."

But he said the government also fully intended to "use all means within its powers, within the laws of the country, to make sure that the property and safety of its citizens are protected."

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban earlier said he would ask the cabinet to invoke the Internal Security Act, which permits the army to help the police and gives the authorities powers to impose curfews and ban gatherings.

The protests by the so-called "Red Shirts" promise to be the biggest since last April, when up to 100,000 took to the streets against Abhisit. Ensuing riots left two people dead and derailed a major Asian summit.

 AFP/yb