Thailand's cabinet today ordered the majority of bars, clubs and all other nightspots across the country to close at midnight, tightening the "Social Order" morals campaign aimed at curbing crime and drug addiction in Thailand.

The new law voted yesterday is certain to cause uproar among owners, workers and customers at tens of thousands of beer-bars, pubs, restaurants, discos, karaoke venues, go-go bars and massage parlors which will directly be affected by the new directive which comes into force on 1 March 2004.

Under this very complicated new directive, all night spots outside "Specified Nightlife Zones", including three such zones in Bangkok, will have to shut at midnight. Discos and registered hostess bars will still be allowed to stay open until 2:00am. The current closing time for all establishments across Thailand was 2:00 AM, while restaurants featuring musical performances could stay open until 1:00am.

"The cabinet of Thailand has yesterday approved the regulation to set a closing hour of 2:00am for entertainment venues inside zoned areas while outside those zones they will have to close at midnight," deputy government spokesman Sansanee Nakpong told reporters.

Sansanee Nakpong said that in Bangkok the "Special Zones" will cover the major nightlife districts including the red-light area of Patpong and the New Petchaburi and Ratchada Phisek areas, which are stuffed with massage parlors and karaoke bars. The new directive covers 50 of Thailand's 76 provinces including the capital Bangkok in Thailand.

The Thai cabinet rejected the interior ministry's proposal for earlier blanked closing times all over Thailand last month, saying the move would affect tens of thousands of people and needed to be reviewed. The nightlife crackdown in Thailand, which began in August 2001 under the patronage of "Thailand's Mr Clean", Interior Minister Purachai Piemsombun, ended the free-wheeling ways of Bangkok's bars and clubs, which used to only close at dawn.

Despite grumbles from many club and bar owners, the initiative was firmly backed by most Thais who were alarmed by the epidemic of drug use among Thai youth and the easy availability of methamphetamines made in neighboring Myanmar.

The government has said that the amount of drugs on the streets has reduced sharply thanks to this moral campaign and the "war on drugs" in Thailand, which has been strongly criticized by human rights groups.