Thai PM says he will step down if national stability at stake

But Abhisit Vejjajiva said the country's problems were not purely political and involved security and what he called "terrorist" problems, saying Thailand needs more than a short-term solution.

He also said there were no plans to impose martial law to clamp down on weeks of protests to campaign for immediate elections, according to excerpts of the interview released by the BBC before broadcast.

Asked if he would step down if he believed he were an obstacle to Thailand's recovery and stability, Abhisit replied: "Of course. I've never put my interests above the country's."

But he said: "We are in agreement at the moment that the problems we are seeing is not a purely political problem. There are security problems involved, there are terrorist problems involved.

"We need to tackle all those issues at the same time. When we talk about the stability everyone wants to achieve, not a short-term stability waiting for the problem, the same problem to be repeated again and again," he added.