Thailand's Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn officially opened the National People's Assembly (NPA) in Bangkok on Sunday afternoon, paving the way for drafting the country's new constitution after the former one was abolished by the Sept. 19 coup.

"The NPA members should perform their duty with thoughtfulness and justice so that constitution drafters can be selected," said the Crown Prince in his keynote speech.

"You are now entrusted with an important task because a constitution is a core principle of the country's administration," the Crown Prince was quoted by the state-run Thai News Agency as saying.

The 1,982 NPA members comprises of 574 persons from the public sector, 545 from the private sector, 538 from the social sector and 325 from the academic circle.

They will convene on Monday to select among themselves 200 finalists. The Council for National Security (CNS) will then choose 100 of them as the Constitution Drafting Assembly members.

Constitutional drafting will be conducted by the Constitution Drafting Committee grouping 35 eminent persons -- 25 of whom will be selected by the Constitution Drafting Assembly and the other 10proposed by the CNS.

The drafting of the new constitution is expected to take about six months.

(Xinhua News Agency December 18, 2006)