The Thai government is to hire a U.S. -based public relations firm to counter the public relation war being waged by deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Thai local media said on Tuesday.

The move came after Democrat Party executive Korbsak Sabhavasu revealed on Sunday that Thaksin's U.S. lobbyists had written an opinion piece for The Washington Times to discredit the military- installed government.

The Thai Embassy in Washington will sign a contract with an American PR firm for "nation branding" to provide fact and detail in response to moves to create misunderstanding of the Kingdom, spokesman of the Thai Foreign Ministry Tharit Charungvat was quoted by local newspaper The Nation as saying.

The embassy will pay 55,000 U.S. dollars per month to the firm for three months. Tharit said the ministry would evaluate the performance of the firm on a monthly basis.

Thaksin is reputed to be paying 200,000 U.S. dollars a month for lobbyists, including Edelman Public Relations, to build up his image and create negative press for the military-installed government and the military.

Source: Xinhua