Thailand recalled its ambassador to Cambodia on Thursday after Phnom Penh appointed fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra as an economic adviser, a senior official said.

"We are recalling our ambassador to Cambodia by this evening," Chavanond Intarakomalyasut, secretary to Thailand's minister of foreign affairs, told AFP.

"The reason is that the appointment of Thaksin is considered interfering in our internal politics because Thaksin is still actively involved in politics," he said.