Thailand's army-appointed cabinet has told Thai Airways to lease the eight Airbus A330-300 aircraft it ordered instead of buying them, airline president Apinan Sumanaseni said on Tuesday.

"The cabinet agreed with a form of operating lease. There will be no more negotiation. It has been finalized," Apinan told reporters after attending a weekly cabinet meeting.

The national carrier had agreed to buy the planes at a discount of more than USD$15 million each as part of a compensation package for delays in delivering six A380 superjumbo planes.

An airline executive said the compensation would change into another form, but gave no further details.

In February, the state-owned airline said the eight A330s would replace existing 20-year-old aircraft, six A300-600s and two Boeing 747-300s.

The delivery of the six A380 superjumbo planes, the world's biggest commercial airliner, is two years behind schedule, partly due to problems with installing wiring.

Thai Airways plans to buy at least 46 planes over 10 years to upgrade its fleet and decommission 24 aircraft more than 20 years old over the next five years.

"New generation energy-saving planes such as the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 are interesting and we will include them in our study plan," Apinan said.

Thai Airways, which has 91 aircraft, has said the A330-300 planes would be delivered gradually to Thai Airways starting from 2008, when the national carrier was due to decommission 4 or 5 mid-sized aircraft.