Defence Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat has urged red shirt co-leader Jatuporn Prompan to stop talking about a potential coup d'etat.
ACM Sukumpol yesterday said Mr Jatuporn, a list MP for the ruling Pheu Thai Party, should keep quiet about the matter.
"Mr Jatuporn talks too much. He should not talk about this matter," he said.
ACM Sukumpol said if he happened to meet Mr Jatuporn he would tell the red shirt co-leader to calm down.
He believed Mr Jatuporn would listen. "I wonder why US intelligence would tell Mr Jatuporn [about the coup], and not us. This is ridiculous," he said.
He had told everyone time and time again there would not be a coup, because nobody wanted to stage one.
Mr Jatuporn said on Wednesday a coup was being planned for April.
He said members of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship and his "associates who work with US intelligence" told him about the coup, prompting him to call on the red shirts to be prepared to renew mass protests to pre-empt any such attempt.
The protests should discourage anyone who might be plotting a coup, Mr Jatuporn said, adding the UDD will stage a concert on Feb 25 at the Bonanza resort at Khao Yai in Nakhon Ratchasima. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said Mr Jatuporn's coup claims might only be intended as a deterrent.
"Mr Jatuporn might only want to pre-empt it happening. Since everyone has given their assurances that [a coup] will not happen, this matter should be put to rest," she said.
Walter Braunohler, spokesman for the US embassy in Thailand, dismissed Mr Jatuporn's remarks that US intelligence officials had warned the government about a possible coup in April.