PATTAYA – (UPDATE) Helicopters began evacuating foreign leaders Saturday after anti-government protests forced the postponement of a major Asian summit in Thailand, Agence France-Presse reporters and police said.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo boarded a civilian helicopter which landed on the roof of the luxury beach resort hotel in the city of Pattaya where the meeting was being held, an AFP correspondent said.

Arroyo’s Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said by phone that the President was “very safe and very OK.”

Remonde said Ms Arroyo and the other leaders were never in danger. “The protesters were not rowdy.”

Remonde confirmed that Ms Arroyo was flown out of the convention center of the Royal Cliff Grand & Spa Hotel, venue of the summit, toward the airport in Pattaya.

”She has left the convention center and was flown by chopper to the airport, where she would wait for us,'' he said, referring to Ms Arroyo's party of Cabinet officials and lawmakers.

But Remonde hung up before he could answer questions on whether Ms Arroyo and her delegation would be staying in Pattaya and wait until Sunday for their scheduled trip to Dubai.

The Thai government postponed the summit after thousands of anti-government protesters forced their way into the convention center. No new date for the summit was set.

Government officials advised the leaders to stay in their hotel rooms.

Police separately said that Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein had been airlifted by chopper to the Vietnam War-era U-Tapao military airfield near Pattaya.

"That is our plan," an official at the police summit security center said when asked if other leaders would be evacuated by helicopter.

An AFP photographer later said that Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was the first to arrive by helicopter at the airfield, followed by Vietnamese Premier Nguyen Tan Dung and Myanmar's Thein Sein.

Planes for the foreign leaders were on standby there.

Police said that other leaders including those of China, Japan, and South Korea were still at their hotels in Pattaya, where the protesters had trapped them with roadblocks.

"The rest of the leaders are still at their hotels and police are waiting for further government orders," the summit police official said, asking not to be named.