Deputy agriculture minister Somchai Sunthornwat told Reuters Thailand's decision on whether to leave the world rubber body or pay its share of a recent cash call by the grouping would hinge on the outcome of an INRO council meeting to be held in October.

He made the statement after a meeting on Wednesday with senior INRO officials in town to lobby Thailand, the world's top producer and exporter, not to withdraw its INRO membership and prevent a collapse of the producer-consumer grouping.

Somchai said Thailand decided to give INRO another chance because the agency itself and some consuming country members seemed to have softened their stance and were ready to listen to producers' views on market intervention to stabilise prices.

"INRO official suggested that we make official proposals at the meeting in October.Our official line remains the same. We want INRO to raise the intervention price," Somchai said.

"We also want it to take into account the amount of market share each producing country has when it intervenes to buy to prop up the rubber price. Last time when it was in the market, it ignored this factor," he said.

INRO groups six rubber producing and 17 consuming countries. Producing countries include Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Sri Lanka.

Consuming members are the US, Japan, China, Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Luxemburg, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Britain.

It is the world's sole surviving producer-consumer commodity grouping with the power to steer prices. But INRO has been strongly criticised by producers who charge it has ignored their plight.

Thailand has complained that INRO's market intervention levels to buy stockpile rubber are too low and should be raised. Its plea for such action had until recently fallenon deaf ears, Thai officials claimed.

Under the current agreement, INRO can intervene to buy at its own discretion if the five-day moving average of the daily market indicator price (DMIP) dips below 183 Malaysia/Singapore cents a kg. But it must buy once the price hit 172 cents.

Malaysia, the world's third largest producer, has vowed to leave INRO while Thailand has said it is likely to follow suit. "But now I see a better chance for members on both sides to break a deadlock and make some progress at the meeting. Consumer members such as Japan and China are looking more sympathetic. Let's hope it will work," Somchai said.

INRO's full council will meet on October 22 and 23 in Kuala Lumpur but a small group of producers and consumers are to meet on October 5 to mull a paper on the pact's future.

Somchai said during the meeting on October 5, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Nigeria would represent producers while the US, Japan, EU and China will represent the other side.

He said Thailand will not payINRO's recent cash call for use in buffer stock operations in the bearish market unless it was satisfied with the outcome of the full council's meeting.

INRO sent a letter to its 22 members several weeks ago calling for a fresh round of intervention funds totaling 150 million Malaysian ringgit. Thailand is required to pay 30.70 million ringgit in this latest call for funds.