PHUKET: Police today named a Phuket businessman - the deputy director of the Phuket Chamber of Commerce - as the ''Mr Big'' they want to interview over the assassination-murder of a Phuket journalist.

He is Ausadakorn ''Pord'' Sidorkbaow, 48, who heads Phuket's KPP Cable TV service. Arrest warrants have now been issued for Khun Ausadakorn and a man previously known only as ''Khun Boy'' - Somkon Deepan, 48.

Phuket Police Commander Major General Chonsit Wadhnawarangkun told the media at Phuket City Police Station today that Khun Boy and Khun Ausadakorn were friends.

Police have previously said that they believe Khun Boy paid 50,000 baht to the gunman Sanya Klinchoom, 36, and his motorcycle rider, Noppadol Plaisi, 43, to murder Phuket journalist Wisut ''Ae'' Tangwittayaporn as he drove his Honda Jazz along Phuket's main road on January 12.

Motorcycle rider Khun Noppadol took part in a reenactment of the crime this week. He and the alleged killer, Khun Sanya, both come from Cha-Am, where Khun Noppadol surrendered to police soon after he heard they were going to arrest him.

Today's briefing by Major General Chonsit indicates that police believe Khun Ae's death was not linked to coastal property speculation on Phuket, although it does not settle claims that some of the property speculation involved corruption, as Khun Ae claimed.

As a journalist and red activist who was confrontational in his approach, Khun Ae won the respect of other journalists but alienated some of his subjects - among them police believe, Khun Ausadakorn, who would not have liked what he read about himself in Khun Ae's publication, 'Inside Phuket.'

Khun Ae criticised the business ethics of Ausadakorn and accused him of being a womaniser in a column that appeared in December.

Khun Ae's cremation on Friday attracted senior representatives from the red movement in Bangkok including the chairwoman of the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship, Thida Thavornseth, who said the murder would trigger government action against corruption on Phuket.