BANGKOK, THAILAND - Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej told a senior US envoy Friday that Thaksin Shinawatra will not run his government from behind the scenes, now that the deposed premier has returned from exile.

Samak met Friday with Christopher Hill, the US pointman for East Asian affairs, just one day after Thaksin staged a dramatic homecoming after nearly a year and a half in self-imposed exile.

Thaksin was toppled in a coup in 2006, and a military-backed court has banned him from politics for five years.

Many analysts say Thaksin will try to keep Samak on a tight leash.

Samak, a charismatic but combative right-winger, has bristled at suggestions that he is Thaksin's puppet, and told Hill that he holds the reins of government, according to his spokeswoman Suparat Nakbunnam.

"Today the critics say that the real prime minister has returned to Thailand, but today is my day as prime minister," Samak told Hill during their meeting, according to the spokeswoman.

Hill met with Samak just hours before he made his first official visit overseas as head of government, travelling to neighbouring Laos.

Hill also gave Samak a message to deliver from the United States to the ruling military junta in Myanmar, Thailand's neighbour and a key trading partner, she said.

Suparat declined to give details of the message, but said Samak was likely to visit Myanmar next week.

Thaksin's homecoming to rapturous crowds Thursday eclipsed Samak's profile as prime minister, sparking widespread speculation in Thai media that Thaksin was returning to keep the premier under his thumb.

Although Thaksin personally tapped Samak to lead his supporters in the last elections, the two have a prickly history.

They both served as deputy prime ministers during the late 1990s, and bickered so intensely that the revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej publicly scolded them.