More than 200 policemen with bomb detectors and five sniffer dogs were deployed around the court where some 400 of Thaksin's supporters waited, many holding portraits of the former leader over their heads.

"The defendant pleaded not guilty of the charges," chief judge Thongloh Chom-ngam told the court, which set the next hearing for April 29. It also excused Thaksin from having to appear at every hearing, as requested by his lawyer.

"We can prove our innocence," said Thaksin, who was ousted in a September 2006 military coup for alleged corruption and abuse of power.

When he emerged after the hearing, some of his supporters burst into tears while others cheered him, shouting "Thaksin, fight, fight."

"Never mind, everything will be OK," Thaksin told one female supporter who cried as she hugged him.

Thaksin's return has stirred the Thai political scene because of suspicions that he will seek a return to power and try to settle the score against those who deposed him.

He has insisted, though, that he has no interest in returning to politics and has said he plans to devote himself to charity work, sports and his family.

The decision by Judge Silvino Pampilo Jr. of the Manila Regional Trial Court came after a 17-year trial in the case, involving some $863 million in Swiss bank accounts.

Pampilo said the prosecution presented witnesses that were not directly relevant to the accounts, and failed to prove wrongdoing by Marcos beyond a reasonable doubt.

Marcos and two associates were accused of unlawfully opening 11 dollar accounts in Switzerland under the names of 10 foundations linked to the Marcos family to hide alleged ill-gotten wealth, Pampilo said in a telephone interview.

"The prosecution presented inadmissible evidence," he added.

The money has been frozen by the government and is being held in escrow at the Philippine National Bank.

Pampilo said the forfeiture proceedings for the funds are separate and being handled by the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan, and that Marcos was acquitted only on the criminal case.

The wealthy socialite, 79, gained fame for the extensive shoe collection and diamond- encrusted tiaras she left behind when she and her husband fled the country after his 1986 fall from power.

Among the 47 people named in the lawsuit filed with the Supreme Court are three members of the current Cabinet, according to Sitthichoke Sricharoen, a lawyer representing the Assets Examination Committee.

"It is now up to the Supreme Court to decide whether or not to accept the case," Sitthichoke said.

The targets of the suit are accused of malfeasance for allegedly mismanaging and illegally spending money gained from the lottery scheme initiated by Thaksin's government.

The complaint alleged that irregularities in the scheme caused the state $1.17 billion in financial losses. It asked the Supreme Court to order the 47 people to pay the damages.

Thaksin's government launched the lottery in 2003, saying it would lure people away from the popular illegal underground lottery and also would generate revenue for education.

In addition to officials of the government lottery office, the suit targets Thaksin — who was toppled in a 2006 military coup and returned from exile last month to face other cases against him — and 29 members of his former Cabinet.

Three of those named in the suit are in the current government of Thaksin ally Samak Sundaravej.

The committee had previously submitted the case to the Attorney General's office, which had declined to prosecute it. This time it decided to submit the complaint directly to the Supreme Court's criminal division for political office holders, said Sitthichoke.

Rakkiat Pattanaphong, the division's secretary, said a panel of nine judges will take 30 days to deliberate whether to accept the case and order a trial.

The AEC was established right after the September 2006 coup that toppled Thaksin. There are several other corruption-related suits under way against Thaksin and his family, but none have yet come to trial.

The declaration by the winners of Feb. 18 elections immediately heightened expectations that the unpopular, U.S.-allied president could be on the way out. "Moment of Truth for President Musharraf," read a headline in the respected Dawn newspaper.

But the parties of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and another ex-premier, Nawaz Sharif, still lack the two-thirds parliamentary majority needed to impeach the president. It was also unclear exactly how they could reinstate the sacked justices.

Tariq Azim, a former minister and a Musharraf ally, predicted the victorious parties would ease their rhetoric against the president as they settle into government.

"They will have to first stabilize themselves. In the process of stabilizing themselves, they will deal with the president and maybe the long-running rift between them and the president gets a thaw," Azim told The Associated Press.

By agreeing to send their ministers to be sworn in by Musharraf, the politicians have "faced the reality that there is a president and he is not going anywhere," Azim said.

Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup and turned Pakistan into a close U.S. ally after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He has faced mounting pressure to resign since his supporters were routed in the elections last month. Bhutto and Sharif's parties finished first and second.

China keeps secret the number of prisoners it executes, but international human rights observers have no doubt it judicially kills more than any other country -- with estimates of executions somewhere between 1,000 and 12,000 a year in recent times.

But from the start of 2007, China's Supreme People's Court took back power of final approval on death penalties, relinquished to provincial high courts in the 1980s, and promised to apply the ultimate punishment more carefully.

In a rare glimpse into how the new rule is working, the president of the top court's criminal law chamber, Huang Ermei, said that in 2007 it rejected 15 percent of death sentences passed by lower courts, according to the China News Service on Saturday. She gave no hint of the overall number of executions.

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Tuesday added his voice to regional condemnation of Colombia's military strike on rebels inside Ecuador, and called on the two countries to resolve the problem peacefully.

"We coincide in the rejection of any action that constitutes a violation of territorial sovereignty," Calderon said after a meeting with Salvadoran President Tony Saca in which the two leaders discussed the crisis.

Colombia bombed neighboring Ecuador's territory on Saturday to kill a senior leftist FARC guerrilla, leading Ecuador's ally Venezuela to warn that war could break out in the region. Both Ecuador and Venezuela have mobilized troops.

Mexico's criticism of Colombia came after Brazil condemned the bomb attack on Monday and called on Bogota to offer an explicit apology.

Nicaragua has also condemned Colombia's killing of the rebel commander, and former Cuban President Fidel Castro called the incident a "monstrous crime."

Calderon said Mexico would try to help Colombia and Ecuador resolve the crisis.

"We will spare no effort so that the Colombian and Ecuadorean governments normalize relations as soon as possible through dialogue and diplomatic channels," Calderon said.

Calderon may meet with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at a regional summit being held in the Dominican Republic on Thursday and Friday, Mexican state news agency Notimex reported.

Dominican government sources have said both Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa might attend the summit.