Thailand has launched a monthlong anti-crime campaign and assigned more than 10,000 officers yesterday to provide security for a regional trade meeting next month.

　　Thousands of delegates and journalists are expected to gather in Bangkok for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, a series of talks culminating in the October 20-21 leaders' summit.

　　Police Major General Pongsaphat Phongchareon said more than 10,000 police officers had been assigned to provide security for the meetings and were participating in a crime crackdown which started yesterday.

　　The officers have been pulled from Thailand's pool of 216,985 immigration, anti-terrorist, anti-riot and other police.

　　"All security divisions ... are well-prepared and ready to crack down on all kinds of crime in a monthlong operation to provide security for the APEC meeting," he told reporters.

　　Police say they have detected no evidence of terrorist activities in Thailand this week during the second anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States.

　　Concerns over a possible terrorist attack on the APEC meeting were raised last month when Indonesian terror suspect Hambali was arrested in central Thailand. Now in US custody, he is believed to be the operations chief of Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida linked regional terror group accused in last year's nightclub bombings on Bali island that killed 202 people.

　　Meanwhile, Bangkok officials were expected to start rounding up thousands of stray dogs from the streets of several districts in the capital ahead of the APEC meeting.

　　Stray dogs have become a public nuisance in recent years, especially during summer months, when they become unusually aggressive.

　　APEC is the world's largest trade cooperation group, with a combined population of over 2.5 billion and total gross domestic product of US trillion.