One district out of 17 submerged by flooding in Phetchaburi, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Ratchaburi and Kanchanaburi provinces remained under threat but the rest were improving, the interior ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said a total of three people had been killed in the flooding caused by torrential downpours which are estimated to have caused at least one billion baht (25 million dollars) damage.

Some 209,633 people from the four provinces were hit by the heavy flooding, and 1,609 were evacuated from their homes.

Soldiers helped evacuees in Prachuap Khiri Khan's Pranburi district shift back to their homes, an army spokesman told AFP, but they were waiting for water levels to recede elsewhere before deeming it safe for evacuees to return.

"People are going back home as the water level is now going down and allowing cars to pass," Somkuan Saengpattaranetr said by telephone.

The spokesman said that the royal Phra Ram Ratchaniwet palace in Petchaburi province had been spared from the floods after army troops scrambled to build a protective dyke around it with thousands of sandbags.

"The palace is safe. The sandbags have held and the waters in the centre of Phetchaburi are now receding," he said.

The European-style palace, one of several in the kingdom and completed in 1916, had been under serious threat due to to its location just 50 metres (yards) from the overflowing Petchaburi River.

The Thai cabinet on Tuesday approved 200 million baht from its budget to help rehabilitate submerged agricultural areas, while the transportation ministry has asked for another 86 million baht to repair damaged roads.

The government also approved an extension of debt payment and interest rate reduction for farmers affected by the flooding.

Severe flooding across 38 of Thailand's 77 provinces last year left 135 people dead and caused 1.6 billion baht damage.

TERRA.WIRE