BANGKOK: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, in Thailand on Sunday as anti-government protesters raised the spectre of a military coup, urged top leaders to maintain democratic rule.

A senior US official travelling with Gates said the secretary sent a clear message to Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and about a dozen high-ranking military officers. The official said Gates told them that the relationship between the US and Thailand’s militaries is “based upon shared democratic values”.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private. But earlier in the day Gates told reporters that he planned to make that point to the Thai leaders.

“We want to see a democratically elected government, and we will convey that message,” Gates said before his meeting. He added that the trip had been planned for a long time and to cancel because of the demonstrations would be an unwelcome and possibly not useful signal to the country.

Officials said Gates saw no protesters or signs of unrest during his travel to and from the defence ministry.The 45-minute session came as the protesters vowed to keep up their demonstrations until Samak steps down. Protesters charge that Samak is little more than a puppet for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup.On Saturday Samak had threatened to use riot police to forcibly remove the protesters, but on Sunday he said authorities would relocate the protesters without force. He did not say when that move would take place.

The bulk of the meeting with Samak on Sunday, however, dealt with the crisis in neighbouring Myanmar. Later this year Thailand will assume the leadership of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and Samak told Gates that he will continue to press the military junta in Myanmar to accept greater humanitarian assistance from the international community, the official said.

Samak told Gates the Myanmar government may be fearful that opening up its country even just to receive relief supplies could be perceived as an invasion or threat to their rule.

Gates has questioned the lack of power Asean and its members have had in convincing the Myanmar government to allow US Navy ships and helicopters to deliver much needed supplies to the cyclone victims.Gates told reporters that he will make a decision within “a matter of days” about withdrawing US Navy ships from the coast of Myanmar, because “it’s becoming pretty clear the regime is not going to let us help”.

As a result, he said many more people will die, particularly those in areas that can only be reached by helicopters, such as those sitting idle on the US ships.

Asked if the military junta there is guilty of genocide, Gates said: “I tend to see genocide more as a purposeful elimination of people, this is more akin, in my view, to criminal neglect.”

Speaking to reporters at the close of an international security conference in Singapore, Gates said earlier that the Myanmar representative at the forum did not seem interested in speaking with him. But, he said, “it was interesting to watch as minister after minister described their respective unhappiness at their inability to get assistance in to Burma”.

It was particularly pointed, he said, since Chinese officials thanked other countries for the help provided after the earthquake in China.

Still, Gates affirmed again that there was unanimous opposition in the international community to forcing aid to the Myanmar people suffering in the wake of the devastating cyclone that struck in early May.

“There is great sensitivity all over the world to violating a country’s sovereignty,” Gates said. “Particularly in the absence of some kind of UN umbrella that would authorise it.” Asked if that sensitivity is linked to the controversy surrounding the US invasion of Iraq, Gates said he has heard no one make that connection.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that even when the decision is made to pull the four US Navy ships off the coast, the vessels will move away slowly enough to turn back if there is an unexpected change of heart by the Myanmar government.

The comments from Gates came a day after he made his strongest public condemnation of the Myanmar government at the conference, saying that Myanmar’s rulers “have kept their hands in their pockets” while other countries sought to help cyclone victims.

The widespread displeasure with the Myanmar government was clear at the conference, coming up in nearly all conversations among leaders. Gates met with his top Pacific commander Saturday to discuss the timing of a US Navy pullout. A final decision still has not been made.

Gates was on a weeklong trip through Asia. After his stop in Thailand, he will travel to South Korea.—AP