No Asean leader has expressed concern over the anti-government rallies and all remain committed to joining this weekend's summit, Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan says.

"Nobody has cast doubts over the safety of the leaders and heads of international organisations scheduled to come to the meeting," Mr Surin said yesterday after a meeting of Asean finance ministers in Pattaya.

"I am begging the protesters to please think about the image and credibility of the country which is hosting the meeting and is currently the chairman of Asean.

"We have been honoured to organise these meetings and it is the great task of everyone in the country to accomplish our jobs," said Mr Surin, a former foreign minister.

"Everyone has the right to express their opinion but such actions should not obstruct the government in doing its job. And I do believe that every Thai wants to see the success of this meeting."

Mr Surin said Thailand and the 15 other East Asian economies had become the hope of others in the world to help revitalise the global economy.

"After the [London] G20 meetings [earlier this month], everyone has pinned their hopes on the Asean summit to mobilise efforts on a regional scale for a global economic recovery.

"We are at a distance from the [global economic] crisis, and we have the experience of our own financial crisis [in 1997]. We have the capacity today to help rehabilitate the global economy."

An American diplomat said the political crisis was not a good one for the country and that the situation was still fluid. But compared to the turbulence in countries like Georgia and France's mass transit strike, which caused far wider traffic snarls, Thailand's paralysis was smaller.

"As long as there is no violence, there should not be further worries. But even if there is violence, similar to places like Greece and India, sooner or later the foreign tourists will rush back," the diplomat said.

The Finnish ambassador to Thailand Lars Backstrom said the right to demonstrate was acceptable as long as there were no physical assaults on others.

But Mr Backstrom said he hoped the prolonged political instability in Thailand would not lead to any bloodshed, which would not only be sad but bad for the country.