PHUKET: Dr Johannes Peterlik, Ambassador for Austria, told the Phuket Governor and Phuket honorary consuls yesterday that European countries would issue travel advice about tuk-tuks on Phuket unless changes were made soon.

Here, with some edited passages, is the text of his speech to the honorary consuls and Phuket administrators at Provincial Hall in Phuket City:

''First of all I would like to thank the Governor for his invitation today and thank the honorary consuls for their work. I think it's important to understand that the honorary consuls are the only people in this room who do not earn an income for what they do. You should value the commitment they have for their jobs and the recommendations they try to give you as the authorities of Phuket to facilitate what Phuket lives from today, tourism. I have been coming to Phuket for more than 30 years now . . . I've been ambassador for Thailand for two years . . . Thailand is a safe place for tourists . . . the European Union stands together as one. You have more than half of your consulates in Phuket representing Europe. We cooperate on our travel advice . . . we coordinate on our travel advice . . . we have been monitoring the situation on Phuket very closely for the past one and a half years, to be precise . . . a number of embassies have been watching the situation closely and we are concerned . . . we ask all our citizens to abide by the laws of Thailand when they come to Thailand . . . our consuls support the Thai authorities . . . we are happy to support the Royal Thai Police and authorities when it comes to difficulties with foreigners . . . we know how difficult some of our tourists can be. We have to rely on the rule of law when we have difficulties sometimes, we have to rely on the rule of law, on the Thai law, and we have to rely on your leadership . . . the support we are trying to give you will facilitate the treatment of tourists, especially on Phuket but if we have to report to specifically highlight Phuket in Thailand as a destination where it is not advisable to use a tuk-tuk, one of the symbols of Thailand, for transportation . . . we want to avoid that. I am happy that meetings like this take place regularly because they facilitate hearing both sides of problems as they occur. But meetings like these and discussions like these can only be successful if there are implementations in practice. I and other ambassadors have been waiting for implementations on Phuket for one and a half years already. We have not issued travel advice specifically for Phuket situations for one and a half years because the Foreign Ministry in Bangkok asked us not to do it. But if the situation does not change in practice, we will be forced to issue specific Phuket-related travel advice to do what we are here to do, to uphold Thai law, and to protect our citizens.''