Thai PM refuses to step down

BANGKOK, May 19 (agencies): Thailand's acting prime minister has met with a group of senators to seek a solution to the country's ongoing political crisis, as anti-government protesters continue to pressure the Cabinet to resign.

A participant said Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan's government indicated Monday it is willing to cooperate with the Senate but refused to step down because that might violate the constitution.

 The senators sought the meeting after saying Friday that a government with full authority should conduct political reforms, but stopping short of directly calling the Cabinet to resign.

 The Cabinet has operated in a caretaker capacity with limited power since the lower house was dissolved in December.

Bangkok is the scene of a tense stand-off between government supporters loyal to Yingluck and her brother, ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and opposition demonstrators drawn from Bangkok's middle class and royalist establishment.

The upper house Senate, the country's only remaining legislative body, says it could select an interim prime minister but it wants the caretaker government to step down first.

That has incensed protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, who wants the caretaker government removed right away.

"We will take democratic power and hand it back to the people," Suthep, a former deputy prime minister in a government run by the pro-establishment Democrat Party, told supporters late on Sunday.