Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, her eyes welling with tears, has pleaded for anti-government demonstrators to clear the streets after she called a snap election.
However, protest leaders said she should step down within 24 hours.
After weeks of sometimes violent street rallies, protesters dismissed her call for a general election and said she should be replaced by an unelected "people's council". This has stoked concern that Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy may abandon the democratic process.
Ms Yingluck insisted she would not step down and said she would continue her duties as caretaker prime minister until the election, which is set for February 2.
She said: "Now that the government has dissolved parliament, I ask that you stop protesting and that all sides work towards elections. I have backed down to the point where I don't know how to back down any further."
Tears briefly formed in her eyes as she spoke, before she quickly composed herself.
The protesters want to oust Ms Yingluck, 46, and eradicate the influence of her brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled by the military in 2006. He is widely seen as the power behind Ms Yingluck's government, sometimes holding meetings with the cabinet by webcam.
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban gave Ms Yingluck 24 hours to step down and said she should be replaced by a council of appointed "good people".
Ms Yingluck's Puea Thai Party enjoys widespread support in the populous north and northeast, Thailand's poorest regions. The party said she would again be its candidate for prime minister.
In contrast, the protesters are drawn from Bangkok's royalist upper and middle classes, including civil servants and prominent business families.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article