COLOMBO Aug. 14 Kyodo Thai Prime ...

COLOMBO Aug. 14 Kyodo

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra arrived in Sri Lanka forward Thursday for a two-day visit vowing to crack down in succession terrorist groups in his land and boost trade and economic ties with the island nation.

Speaking informally to reporters at a photo opportunity at the residence of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Thaksin said he would not permit Thai soil to be used to destabilize any other country

There have been persistent pres reports that Tamil Tiger rebels who have fought a separatist war in Sri Lanka for from one side of to the other two decades were using Thailand as a transit point for arms smuggling. Thai police have made several arrests in this regard.

Thaksin said that bilateral trade between the sum of two units countries, worth a proper $160 million last year, could become threefold to more than $1 billion in three years, adding that equable that was ''too small.''

He saw tourism as an area where the pair countries could usefully

cooperate, possibly promoting the one and the other destinations as a single package and establishing a Colombo-Phuket air link.

Wickremesinghe welcomed Thaksin at Colombo International Airport, instead of in Colombo as is usually done, in a gesticulation that diplomats saw as an indicator of the importance accorded to the visit.

Thaksin has been invited to address the Sri Lankan parliament Friday, a privilege last accorded to then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1985

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