The king, who turns 79 on Tuesday, delivered his annual address to the nation live Monday in his first major speech since the September 19 coup that ousted twice-elected prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Prem Tinsulanonda, the head of the Privy Council -- the king's personal advisers -- is believed to have orchestrated the takeover. The military appointed another privy councillor, 63-year-old former army chief Surayud Chulanont, as prime minister.

"This government is very old, but older is better, more experienced and wiser," the king said.

"Older people who maintain their virtue have an advantage over younger people, if they use their experience. But if they refuse to exercise their knowledge and just think of themselves as old, then our nation will crumble," he said.

Wearing a pale grey suit and a yellow tie, he did not comment specifically on the coup, but praised Surayud.

"Surayud is a strong person and he does not act recklessly. Next year he will be relieved of this burden," the monarch said.

"He has no conflicts of interest. I believe that if anyone in a key position is working with good intentions and honesty, then our country will be saved from danger.

"I wish the government, as a team of elders, success in its work," he said.

The king, who with 60 years on the throne is the world's longest-serving monarch, has now seen 24 prime ministers, 18 coups and 17 constitutions. He spoke only briefly about politics, saying he was "bored" with it.

"I don't want to talk about politics. It's boring," he said.

"Next year I will talk about other issues, but if I do so now, foreigners will say that the king is ordering around the prime minister," he added.

The generals who toppled Thaksin have promised to draft a new constitution and hold elections by October 2007.

But the king gave relatively little time to the affairs of the nation.

He gave no indication when he might sign a decree lifting martial law across half the country for the first time since the coup. The junta and the government approved the measure last week, but it needs the monarch's signature to take effect.

Nor did he mention the worsening insurgency in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, where more than 1,700 people have been killed in nearly three years of unrest.

The violence there has spiked in the last month, with a wave of arson and bombings at schools forcing the cancellation of classes in much of the region.

Most of his speech was devoted to water management, a passion of the monarch who has spent much of his reign looking for ways to minimize the effects of seasonal flooding.

He also admitted that he had become physically weak, and he delivered the speech while seated, in a voice barely above a whisper that weakened the longer he spoke.

The speech -- actually unscripted remarks that he delivers off the cuff every year -- was shorter than his addresses in previous years, when he would carry on for up to two hours on a variety of topics.

"I am not standing up, because although I am in good spirits, I am not physically strong because I have over-exerted myself. That's why I have to save my energy," he said.

The king underwent a spinal operation in July that doctors said was successful, but he has rarely been seen in public since then.

His health is the subject of great concern in Thailand, where he is revered with an almost religious devotion.