Thailand's anti-government protesters have finally abandoned the barricades and lifted their week long siege of Bangkok's airports.

As the leaders of the former government met to decide on a caretaker prime minister, members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) armed themselves with mops and buckets, carefully cleaned the airports they have been occupying, and streamed away in a convoy of taxis, buses and overloaded lorries.

Thousands of stranded Britons and other tourists will start returning home tomorrow, when the first international flights resume.

Many have languished in Thailand since last Tuesday, when members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) took over Bangkok's international Airport, Suvarnabhumi, in a last-ditch bid to oust Somchai Wongsawat, the Prime Minister, and his government.

Immediately after Mr Somchai was forced from power by the Constitutional Court on Tuesday, jubilant PAD leaders said they would end six months of anti-government protests, which have included the occupation of Government House and Bangkok's two main airports.

The PAD has accused Mr Somchai of being nothing more than a proxy for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a coup in 2006 and convicted in his absence of corruption.

Minutes after the 10am deadline set by PAD leaders for the end of the protest, their members began to pull out from their siege positions - after cleaning up after themselves with mops and brooms.

The crisis that has severed Thailand's air-links with the world, crippled the economy and devastated the tourist industry appears to be over, in the short term at least.

Mr Somchai's government was dissolved yesterday, and he and other party leaders were barred from politics for five years after the court found one member of the People's Power Party (PPP) guilty of fraud.

The ruling was widely expected and the PPP had already created an off-the-shelf party - made up of most of its members - which will attempt to form a new government.

But this could lead to renewed conflict. The PAD has warned that, if a new government is made up of pro-Thaksin members, it will be back on the streets again.

Clashes between pro and anti-government forces have led to six deaths since August. The latest grenade attack on anti-government protesters at Suvarnabhumi Airport yesterday killed a 29-year-old demonstrator.

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