BANGKOK: Thailand's foreign minister is among dozens of "Yellow Shirt" protest leaders who will face charges relating to a crippling airport blockade in Bangkok last year, police said.

Police issued summonses to 36 leading members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), including foreign minister Kasit Piromya, a former member of the group, Police Lieutenant General Wuthi Puavej said late Saturday.

Police have issued summonses "against people who were involved with the closure of Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi airports for the charges of illegal assembly, invasion, breaches of aviation law and terrorism," Wuthi said.

Kasit was only charged over the siege of the main Suvarnabhumi international airport in November-December, which left hundreds of thousands of travellers stranded and caused major economic damage.

The other 35 were charged either in relation to Suvarnabhumi or to the blockade of domestic Don Mueang airport which took place at the same time, or both.

The PAD is an ardent royalist group that helped topple prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra with mass rallies in 2006 and then took to the streets again last year to protest against his allies in government.

They abandoned the airport siege after the Constitutional Court disbanded the former ruling pro-Thaksin party in December. Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva won a parliamentary vote to become prime minister later that month.

Abhisit has since faced calls from Thaksin's supporters -- known as "Red Shirts" in Thailand's colour-coded politics -- to sack Kasit over his ties to the PAD.

Other key leaders summoned by police were media tycoon and PAD founder Sondhi Limthongkul and Somsak Kosaisuk, leader of the "New Politics Party" -- the political party recently formed by the "Yellow Shirts".

The new party's acting secretary general Suriyasai Katasila was also among the summoned protesters, who must turn themselves in for questioning on July 16, police said.

- AFP/yt