Leaders of Thailand’s anti-government protesters say they will accept an offer by senators to mediate talks, amid growing pressure to end violence.
Five days of street clashes between troops and protesters in Bangkok have left 37 people dead and scores more injured.
A leader of the "red-shirt" protesters said the group would agree to the proposal to prevent more loss of life.
But it is not yet clear whether the government will take part in the talks.
BBC correspondents in Thailand say pressure is growing on both sides to end the crisis, amid high tension in the capital.
Late on Monday, the United Nations called on the protesters to "step back from the brink" and urged the government troops to exercise restraint.
On Tuesday sporadic outbreaks of violence continued, but the BBC’s South East Asia correspondent, Rachel Harvey, said that confrontations between troops and demonstrators appeared to be less intense than they once were.
But several thousand protesters remained inside the barricaded camp in the centre of Bangkok in continued defiance of government demands to leave.
Schools and government offices remained closed, with underground and elevated train services suspended.
The government is reported to have extended the public holiday until Friday to allow more time to resolve the crisis – which has seen gunfire and explosions at a number of sites around the protest camp.
The offer to mediate talks came from the head of Thailand’s Senate.
"We have agreed to take a new round of talks proposed by the Senate because if we allow things to go on like this, we don’t know how many more lives will be lost," red-shirt leader Nattawut Saikua told journalists.
Economy hit
There was no immediate response from the Thai government. Over the weekend it rejected a red-shirt proposal of UN-mediated talks, saying violence had to end and the protesters leave their camp before talks could take place.
On Tuesday the military held a news conference, showing footage which it said showed that the red-shirt protesters were aggressors in the fighting.
The red-shirts have been protesting in Bangkok since 14 March. They are currently occupying the shopping district, forcing hotels and shops to close and hitting the economy hard.
The protesters are a loose coalition of left-wing activists, democracy campaigners and mainly rural supporters of ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
They say the government is illegitimate because it came to power through a parliamentary deal rather than an election, and want fresh polls.
The Thai government says that hard-liners within the red-shirts are using innocent demonstrators as a shield behind which to create unrest.
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