PATTAYA, Thailand, April 10 – Asian leaders began arriving in Thailand on Friday for a summit focusing on the global financial crisis, as protesters broke through police lines and blocked the entrance to the conference venue.

Several thousand ”red-shirt” supporters of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra pushed past four police and military checkpoints, moving aside police vans and even driving a fire truck away, before halting just outside the beach resort in Pattaya where the weekend summit was to be held.