Abhisit confident Thailand's rifts can be healed

By Neil Chatterjee and Nopporn Wong-Anan

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The social and political rifts that have plunged Thailand into a three-year crisis can be healed, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Monday, playing down the risks of further tension over a royal succession.

Abhisit became Thailand's third prime minister in as many months last December after street protests that climaxed with the seizure of Bangkok's airports, undermining investor confidence in the country and hitting an economy already on the way down.

In broad terms, Thailand's crisis is a battle between the "yellow shirts" -- royalists, the military and urban Thais, who back Abhisit -- and the "red shirts" -- supporters of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra whose power base was mainly drawn from the country's millions of rural poor.

But Abhisit said Thai society was not irreparably riven.

"I don't think the rift is insurmountable," he told Reuters in an interview. "The majority of Thais have a common aspiration. They want the country to be prosperous."

"The biggest challenge is to take the country through this economic crisis and to emerge out of this. If we address those issues I think the majority of Thais would be satisfied."

One unifying figure is King Bhumibol Adulyadej, widely respected by Thais whatever their political affiliation.

However, many in the yellow camp support an interventionist monarchy and the reds resent the power of Thai elites, leading to concern that -- with the 81-year-old king facing regular health scares -- the issue of succession could throw another explosive element into Thailand's volatile mix.