Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday the country appeared to be back to "normal" after the lifting of a curfew imposed in the wake of deadly anti-government protests.

The premier cancelled the curfew Saturday but said emergency rule was still necessary after two months of mass rallies by "Red Shirt" demonstrators that paralysed the capital and left almost 90 people dead.

"The situation last night was normal. Authorities will keep an eye though, then we'll consider lifting the state of emergency," Mr Abhisit said in his weekly television address.

The Reds' street rallies, broken up on May 19 in an army crackdown on their encampment in Bangkok's Ratchaprasong commercial district, sparked outbreaks of violence that left 88 people dead, mostly civilians, and nearly 1,900 injured.

In an address on Saturday to foreign diplomats, Mr Abhisit said Thailand needed to "rebuild the social and economic compact between people and the government", but defended the crackdown.

"I can say that when we took that Ratchaprasong intersection, we took Bangkok back for the people," Mr Abhisit said in the speech, which was broadcast yesterday.

"No matter what their political views may be, I'm still confident that the majority of our people are peaceful and moderate and they were stunned and dismayed" by recent events, he said.

The premier said he was confident the situation could be resolved through the democratic process, despite a history that has seen 18 actual or attempted coups in Thailand since 1932.

"I think if something like this had happened in the past, people would probably think a coup d'etat was around the corner," Mr Abhisit said.

"Clearly this time around I think everybody is determined that the situation should and could be resolved through normal parliamentary and democratic pro-cesses," he added.