BANGKOK - THAILAND won praise overseas for its return to civilian rule, but its cabinet full of newcomers on Thursday faced immediate doubts at home over its competency and plans for ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

The European Union hailed the kingdom's return to democracy, while the United States announced a resumption of military aid suspended after the coup in Sept2006.

But at home Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's government faced widespread criticism over a cabinet that even he described as 'ugly' because so many relatively inexperienced figures dominated top positions.

After the coup, a military installed tribunal banned Mr Thaksin and 110 of his top aides from politics for five years.

He faces separate corruption charges filed by military backed investigators, which could land him and his wife in prison.

His wife has told a Thai court that he would return home in May to defend himself, but Mr Thaksin has given no firm plans for ending his self-imposed exile in Britain, where he has bought the English Premier League football club Manchester City.

Mr Samak said on late Wednesday that he would only consider an amnesty for Mr Thaksin in two years, which he said would allow time for political tensions to ease.

The leaders of anti-Thaksin street protests that precipitated the coup have already threatened to stage fresh demonstrations if the new government interferes with the court cases against Mr Thaksin.

Mr Samak's efforts to put off discussion of an amnesty may help appease those critics, said political analyst Thitinan Pongsudhirak of Chulalongkorn University.

'Samak needs breathing space to actually govern the country. This is a manoeuvre to keep the pressure away and then to create a working space and time to prove his worth,' he said.

So far the military has indicated that it plans to stay out of politics.

'There should not be any more coups because that would affect our country's credibility,' air force chief Chalit Pukbhasuk said on Thursday as he announced that the junta has officially dissolved. 'We must have confidence in democratic rule,' he told reporters.

Analysts worry that the new cabinet lacks the political gravitas needed to pull the economy out of the doldrums while steering through the minefield of competing interests within Mr Samak's six-party coalition.

Close Thaksin aides were given choice posts - leading the finance and foreign ministries - while his brother-in-law was named a deputy prime minister.

Most of them were unknowns before the coup, and Mr Samak has publicly complained about how little say Mr Thaksin's allies allowed him in the naming of the cabinet.

'It shows that he does not even have the power to select his own cabinet,' said political analyst Prayad Hongthongkam, who lectures at several universities in Bangkok.

'The cabinet list shows that this is really a government of proxies' for Mr Thaksin, he said.

'Several ministers have no qualifications for their jobs. They got their jobs as political payback,' he added.

Mr Thitinan said Mr Samak had been severely hampered by the ban on Mr Thaksin and his 110 loyalists, which forced him to sideline some of the nation's most seasoned political hands.

'The A-team, they're all kind of spent and paralysed politically. (Samak) ended up with the B team and the C team' leading the cabinet, Mr Thitinan said. -- AFP