Bangkok: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan arrived late Thursday in Thailand where he was due to hold talks with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and bestow an award on the nation’s revered king.

He was greeted by Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon and by Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, who is campaigning to replace Annan as UN chief when his term expires at the end of the year.

Annan is due Friday to hold talks with Thaksin, just four days after the premier returned to office following a seven-week break in the wake of protests and a controversial election.

Later in the day, he will bestow an award on Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej in honor of his work on development projects, ahead of the monarch’s 60th anniversary on the throne.

The king will mark his anniversary in June with a series of events in Bangkok to be attended by royalty from 30 countries.

Thailand is Annan’s last stop on a five-nation Asian tour.

Before arriving here from Vietnam, he dispatched an envoy to East Timor, where Australian commandos landed earlier in the day to help quell an outbreak of fighting, Annan’s spokeswoman said.

He arrived in Thailand less than a week after UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari made a rare visit to neighboring Myanmar, where he was allowed to meet with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.