BANGKOK - Thai cabinet has passed an amnesty decree that could directly allow the fugitive prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to return home, Thai media reported on Wednesday.

According to various Thai media which attributed to unidentified sources, the royal decree was approved by the cabinet on Tuesday evening in a secret meeting without presence of Thaksin's sister Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

If the decree is royally endorsed, convicts, who are at least 60 years old and are sentence to under three years in jail will be eligible for the amnesty. Moreover, it does not require the convicts to partially serve a jail term before eligible for the amnesty, according to Thai media.

The Bangkok Post daily newspaper said the criteria set out under the decree would make the ousted prime minister eligible for amnesty without having to serve one day of his sentence.

So far, no cabinet member admitted about such approval. Yingluck said she did not know if there was such discussion on amnesty decree, telling reporters to ask about it from Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung who chaired the meeting.

The decree will need royal endorsement on the king's birthday, December 5, before formally enacted. It is part of the tradition on the king's birthday that the cabinet would be put its proposal of amnesty decree to the king to be endorsed

Thaksin, 62, was convicted in 2008 for abuse of power as prime minister to help his then wife buy a plot of land in Bangkok. He left Thailand before the court delivered its verdict and have lived in self-imposed exile since then.