BANGKOK (Reuters) -- Thailand has ended the cosy, commercial relationship with military-ruled Myanmar that grew up under ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, its new foreign minister said on Wednesday.

"I think we are free of that," Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram told Reuters the day before army-appointed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont's "courtesy call" visit to the former Burma's new capital, near the central logging town of Pyinmana.

"We don't have that kind of relationship with people in Pyinmana," Nitya said.

Under Thaksin, a billionaire businessman ousted in a Sept. 19 coup, Thailand struck a series of controversial deals with its junta-ruled neighbor, ranging from soft loans for telecoms infrastructure investment and a massive hydropower project to energy exploration.

Critics said that in his dealings with the southeast Asian pariah, which has been under military rule of one form or another for four decades, Thaksin was guilty of putting commerce and profit above human rights and morality.

Ironically, considering that it too is under martial law following the coup, Nitya said Thailand would review deals struck under Thaksin to ensure they were clean and corruption-free.

"I don't know that we will be seeking to discontinue, so much as to see whether or not they are transparent and should be continued," he said. "If they bring real benefit, I think we should continue with them but along the lines that I have suggested -- that is, completely transparent, above board and with good intentions and good governance."

He do not suggest that any cancellation of existing energy or other investment projects was likely.

"Some of the discussions relating to energy cooperation probably will continue," he said, without giving details.

Besides trying to make a break with the past in a bid to discredit Thaksin's administration, analysts say Bangkok's new coolness towards Myanmar is personal as well as professional.

A series of counter-narcotics operations and clashes with pro-junta ethnic militias along the Myanmar border while Surayud was army chief suggest the widely respected career soldier has never been sympathetic to the junta.

Analysts also point to his decision to leave Myanmar to last in the round of introductory calls that new leaders in the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) traditionally make on their colleagues.

ASEAN has favored "constructive engagement" with Myanmar's generals to try to coax them toward more open government and democracy, a policy that has yielded no discernible success.

By contrast, the United States and Europe have slapped ever more severe sanctions on the regime, an approach that has helped to push the generals further into the arms of its giant, energy-hungry neighbor, China.