BANGKOK - Around 10,000 anti-government protesters Tuesday besieged the Thai prime minister's temporary offices at an abandoned airport, in their latest bid to stop the government functioning, police said.

Yellow-clad supporters of the People's Alliance of Democracy (PAD) took trucks, buses and private cars to the old Don Mueang international airport on the northern outskirts of the capital Bangkok.

Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat moved to makeshift headquarters to the airport in September after demonstrators seized control of the formal cabinet offices in the city centre in late August.

The protesters were headed by core leaders of the PAD, which accuses the government elected in December of being corrupt and a puppet of exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thousands of protesters descended on parliament on Monday, forcing lawmakers to postpone an important joint session, and also began moving to the airport.

The PAD was at the forefront of street protests that led to the coup that toppled Thaksin in September 2006, and it is trying the same tactic with the current government.

It says it wants to cripple the government of Somchai, who is Thaksin's brother-in-law, but government spokesman Nattawut Saikuar said the weekly cabinet meeting normally scheduled Tuesday was not taking place.

"The cabinet meeting was rescheduled on Wednesday afternoon after prime minister Somchai arrives from Lima (for an APEC summit). The government has not cancelled or postponed its meeting," Nattawut told AFP.

"They wanted to blockade the government, they want to step up pressure on us but the government still adheres to peaceful means of negotiation," he said.