About 1,000 of the demonstrators formed a human chain around five key protest leaders from the People's Alliance for Democracy to prevent their arrest while pressing their demands that the seven-month-old elected government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej step down.

"Brothers, please come and surround our leaders to prevent the police from getting them," protest leader Samran Rodpeth said.

Earlier Friday morning, many of the demonstrators - some armed with golf clubs, batons and bamboo sticks - had pushed up to 400 officers out of the Government House grounds in Bangkok, and then celebrated the police ouster by dancing to rock music.

But officers later returned to deliver the court order, sparking minor clashes in which about a dozen people were injured as the standoff entered its fourth day.

The alliance accuses Samak's government of serving as a proxy for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and faces several pending corruption cases. Thaksin is in self-imposed exile in Britain.

After Thaksin was deposed in the bloodless coup, his party was dissolved and he was banned from public office until 2012.

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