Thai police began talks with anti-government protesters this morning as the crippling occupation of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport ticked through its third full day.

While police said they would move against the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) militants unless they left Suvarnabhumi and the smaller Don Mueang airports, the government appeared at a loss to know what to do.

The army had made it clear it would not forcibly remove the hundreds of protesters who had barricaded themselves into the terminal. Scarred by almost universal condemnation of their tactics at protest rally in October, which left two protesters dead and hundreds wounded, the police are also unwilling to take up arms against the protesters.

Yet the clamour from nations with stranded citizens is growing ever more strident and the price of the occupation is taking an ever-increasing toll.

A government spokesman, Nattawut Sai-Kau, this morning said the first step was for the police to begin negotiating with the protesters. If they refused to leave either of the two Bangkok airports, he said, "we should do whatever is necessary to open the airports on the basis of non-violence".

Lieutenant General Suchart Muenkaew, the chief police negotiator at Don Mueang airport, added: "We will keep talking, but if it fails we will take other steps. The last step will be to disperse them."

PAD protesters have blockeaded Bongkok's international Suvarnabhumi airport and its smaller domestic for the last three days, stranding thousands of tourists, including round 2000 Britons.

The largely middle class protesters have sworn they will hold the airport until the government resigns and will "fight to the death" rather than abandon their blockade. They have been braced for battle with security forces since Mr Somchai declared a state of emergency last night.

Ra Werachon, an ardent PAD supporter from Koh Tao in the nation's south, said he would stay put for as long as it took to force the government to step down

"We are here for the Thai people, for our king," he said. "We aren't worried by this. They (the police) are Thai people too – if they shed the blood of Thais, where are they from? They are not from Thailand. If they come here and shoot us, and throw bombs at us, they will lose everything."

Many PAD supporters almost hope for violence to wrench the army into ousting the government for the good of the nation.

But for much of the day Suvarnabhumi airport seemed more like a holiday camp than a protest site.

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