Thai opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva became the country's third prime minister in as many months yesterday, taking control with a slender majority in parliament and an economy teetering on the brink of recession.

In a sign of the trouble in store for the Oxford-educated economist, 200 supporters of the government sacked by the courts two weeks ago blocked access to parliament after the vote and smashed windows of cars carrying MPs from his Democrat Party.

Chanting Abhisit, army nominee, the red-shirted demonstrators denounced the 44-year-old as a front man for the military, which ousted elected leader Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006 and which has been accused of political meddling ever since.