Thaksin, the first premier to be re-elected after completing a full term, said the next four years would see a further reduction of poverty, a hopeful end to rampaging separatist violence in the Muslim-majority south and improvements in human rights.

"In the next four years, Thailand will transform into a country secure in every respect," he told a joint session of parliament in an hour-plus policy statement six weeks after his party won a landslide re-election.

"In solving the security situation in the three Muslim southern provinces, the government will adhere to the strategy of outreach, understanding and development" -- three principles suggested by revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej last year.

Thaksin's administration has been criticised for a heavy-handed approach to a militant insurgency blamed on Islamic separatists.

More than 630 people have died in the southern violence, which erupted in January 2004. Thaksin, founder of a billion-dollar telecommunications and media empire, has called it the worst crisis of his political career.

Thaksin also promised a more transparent bureaucracy, continuing crackdowns on corruption and on "influential persons" involved in human trafficking and the drugs trade, and an overhaul of several outdated or obsolete laws.

"The government will also promote democracy, uphold human rights and encourage more public hearings and ... participation from community leaders," he said.

On the economic front the prime minister pointed to a string of successes in his first administration -- including GDP growth of 6.9 percent in 2003 and 6.1 percent last year, and 3.6 million new jobs over four years -- and said he would pursue policies promoting continued growth.

Thailand must restructure and retool elements of its economy to improve competitiveness, he said. He also committed himself to help the tourism sector in the wake of December's devastating tsunami.

Thaksin, who has said he brought 2.9 million people out of poverty in his first term, stressed he would continue populist policies which earned him a strong following among the rural poor, including improving their access to capital through village fund schemes.

Thaksin's commanding victory allowed him to form an unprecedented one-party government

The opposition Democrat Party slammed his plan as utopian, unrealistic and out of step with current conditions.

"The policy statement was not based on fact and I don't want government to lose touch with reality," Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva told parliament.

"Few people would disagree (with Thaksin's broad ambitions), but they are not realistic and I doubt they would actually be carried out," he said.

Abhisit also said the almost daily killings in the deep south were a sign that government policy had failed in the region, and pointed to Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party's failure to win seats in the southernmost provinces.

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