SYDNEY (AFP) – Fugitive Thai ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has denied he has ambitions to be leader again, but admitted his youngest sister Yingluck, who is challenging for the post, is his ""clone"".

In a rare television interview at his luxury gated-community home in Dubai, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's ""Lateline"" program he was confident his Puea Thai party would win July 3 elections.
But he played down suggestions that his ultimate goal was to once again rule the country.
""My youngest sister is already there, so no need for me to go back as a prime minister,"" said Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and lives abroad to escape a jail term for graft.
""I still want to be a lecturer, that's my dream. Playing golf. Giving guidance for my children -- for their business endeavors. That's what I really want to.""
The polls will pit Thaksin's sister Yingluck Shinawatra against his arch-foe, current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of the elite-backed Democrat Party, in what is expected to be a closely fought battle.
Recent surveys show Puea Thai pulling ahead in the race with the party posting 43 percent approval to the Democrat Party's 37 percent in a Suan Dusit Rajabhat University poll released on Sunday.
Yingluck, 43, is politically inexperienced and many in Thailand feel her nomination as the opposition candidate for premier confirms Thaksin's central role in the kingdom's political landscape despite living in exile.