BANGKOK -- He has a vast majority in Parliament, has survived a corruption trial and can boast a brightening economy, but opponents of Thailand's prime minister think they have found his Achilles' heel -- foreign policy.

Opposition attacks and media criticism of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra are increasingly focusing on his handling of key diplomatic issues and, in particular, Thailand's thorny relations with neighbor Myanmar.

Thaksin's efforts to play down tensions with the Yangon junta have generated a slew of negative newspaper headlines, and the centerpiece of his foreign policy -- a discussion forum for Asian nations -- has also been met with widespread skepticism.

"A government without a foreign policy success," is how the ***Bangkok Post*** daily described Thaksin's administration.

A former Thai ambassador to the United Nations took the unusual step of going public with criticism of Thai foreign policy last month. Asada Jayanama, now retired, said Thailand had become "a laughing stock among diplomatic communities".

Foreign policy is generally not the main preoccupation of Thai voters and another general election is still years away, but the tensions with Myanmar have generated bad publicity for the government and have been seized on by Thaksin's opponents.

Thaksin took office determined to improve relations with Myanmar, a change of tack from Thailand's previous government which gave overt support to the pro-democracy movement there.

But Thaksin has also pledged to crack down on the flood of illegal drugs crossing the border, a major issue in Thailand where drugs are blamed for many of the country's social ills.

Thailand says an ethnic minority militia in the Golden Triangle, the United WA State Army, is responsible for drug production in the region. Thaksin has vowed to catch the most notorious WA druglord, Wei Hsueh-kang, "dead or alive".

The problem is that the WA are allies of the junta.

Thaksin's hopes he could stay on good terms with the Myanmar government while trying to crack down on the WA army have unraveled.

The junta reacted with fury when Thai troops massed at the border near WA positions, and has accused Thailand of supporting separatist ethnic Shan and Karen rebel groups in Myanmar.

Myanmar newspapers, mouthpieces of the junta, have carried daily articles denouncing the Thai government.

Thai troops have opened fire across the border several times after stray shells from fighting inside Myanmar landed on Thai soil.

But Thaksin, eager to try and patch up relations with the junta, has not responded to Myanmar's verbal attacks and publicly told the military not to overreact to stray shells.

The policy has been described as "appeasement of Burma" by Thai newspapers, which have reported that Thaksin's comments caused a rift between the government and military.

The opposition says Thaksin has been too weak in his dealings with Myanmar and that he needs to take a tougher line on drugs. Thaksin says the issue has been blown out of proportion.

The lukewarm reception accorded to Thaksin's flagship foreign policy initiative, the so-called Asian Cooperation Dialogue, has been another setback for the prime minister, analysts say.

Ministers from 17 Asian countries met at the Thai seaside resort of Cha-am this month to exchange ideas on economic cooperation. Thaksin said the event was an unprecedented pan-Asian forum and told delegates in his opening speech that the meeting marked a "beginning of a new chapter of world history".

But pressing issues like tensions over Kashmir were kept off the agenda. Ministers were told to avoid controversial issues. The meeting attracted little international interest, with most attention focused on bilateral talks between China and Japan.

Myanmar boycotted the forum, and critics said many of the 17 participating nations, such as Bangladesh, Bahrain, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Qatar, were hardly key international players.

They also questioned whether Asia needed another talking shop when it already has a plethora of discussion forums.

Sceptical articles in Thai newspapers said the dialogue lacked focus and had no clearly defined purpose.

The negative headlines are a concern for Thaksin at a time when signs are emerging his honeymoon period may be ending.

His party did surprisingly poorly in Bangkok city election last month, allowing the main opposition Democrat Party to win control of the city council. Opinion polls show his support, while still relatively strong, is slipping, Reuters said. "The jury is still out on the new government's foreign policy but it has been a very mixed bag," said Panitan Wattanayagorn, an international relations and security expert at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. "We have taken some steps backward."