PHUKET: Austria's ambassador told Phuket officials today that travel warnings could be issued across Europe, specifically mentioning that Phuket's tuk-tuks should be avoided, unless action is taken quickly to solve Phuket's law and order issues.

The comments by Ambassador Dr Johannes Peterlik, who grew up in Thailand and has been a visitor to Phuket for more than 30 years, came at the climax of the most intense summit between Phuket's honorary consuls and Phuket's administrators to date.

Honorary consuls and officials at the quarterly meeting listened as Dr Peterlik made it plain that a sizeable number of European ambassadors had been waiting to see change on Phuket for some time and would act in concert to warn tourists if necessary.

''If the situation does not change, we will be forced to publish specific Phuket-related alerts in order to protect our citizens,'' Dr Peterlik said.

His comments, following some surprising reports from honorary consuls in the previous two hours, made it plain to everyone at Provincial Hall in Phuket City this afternoon that speedy action is required, whether from Phuket administrators or from Bangkok.

The bashing of a German expat resident of Phuket on Thursday night in Patong, plus the failure of police to report the matter to Germany's honorary consul until today, further spotlighted the need for the rule of law and commonsense to be restored rapidly.

While several honorary consuls made strong criticisms revolving around present concerns regarding tuk-tuks and jet-skis on Phuket, there was no acrimony at the meeting. The point was made several times that Thais or expats could just as easily become victims.

In a series of developments to the growing concerns about thuggery by tuk-tuk drivers and jet-ski scammers on Phuket:

.. British honorary consul Martin Carpenter said that tuk-tuk fares needed to be renegotiated downwards before the next high season;

.. Dutch honorary consul Seven Smulders warned that tourists now faced new scams when hiring motorcycles;

.. German honorary consul Dirk Naumann said he had been reliably informed that a television show highlighting polluted water on Phuket had resulted in 1000 cancellations of trips to Phuket in Germany alone;

.. Australian honorary consul Larry Cunningham said he had been told by Tourist Police that there had been '' a lot more'' assaults by tuk-tuk drivers than the ones reported in recent months in the media.

The problem, he said, was ''more and more about power. The jet-ski operators and the tuk-tuk drivers have power in Patong.''

At the start of the meeting, the honorary consul expressed dismay that the minutes of the meetings, introduced in February last year, had been doctored to remove criticisms, conveying false impressions to government officials and embassies in Bangkok.

Look for more Phuketwan reports about today's honorary consuls meeting with Phuket administrators, coming soon.