Pro-Thaksin protesters ring Thai Parliament

With only a handful of opposition lawmakers entering the building, the morning opening of the legislature was postponed.

"If they (lawmakers) want to go in, they have to walk through us, including the prime minister," one of the protest leaders, Chatuporn Prompan, told reporters outside the Parliament compound where demonstrators spent the night.

The demonstration sparked fears of renewed political turbulence, which paralyzed the previous government for months and climaxed with an eight-day seizure of Bangkok's airports. But the earlier protesters had been part of an anti-Thaksin alliance.

The current protest group - which calls itself the Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship - is trying to pressure the government to dissolve the legislature and call snap general elections.

They plan to remain around the building while the government tries to deliver its policy statement Monday and Tuesday, the group said. The government, by law, must announce its core policies by Jan. 7.

Parliament speaker Chai Chidchob announced on local television that Monday's session was being postponed until the afternoon, adding that if the safety of lawmakers couldn't be assured "we might have to postpone it to a later date."

Protesters carried signs reading "Give us back real democracy" and "Government of treason."

The protesters - dubbed the "red shirts" for their protest attire - say new Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his Democrat Party came to power this month through a virtual coup d'etat.

The court ruling that dissolved the previous government - which was packed with Thaksin allies - and led to Abhisit's selection as prime minister came under pressure from the military and other powerful forces, the group says.

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