Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said Sunday that the tourist-destination island of Phuket needs an urgent rehabilitation and development projects.

Speaking in his weekly talk show, Samak said he had received complaints directly from local businessmen that the central government had not done much enough to rehabilitate the province much exploited for tourism.

The prime minister said he would soon hold an urgent meeting with government agencies concerned to consider development projects for the province.

One of the projects proposed by the local businessmen is to draw water from the Rajprabha Dam in Surat Thani to Phuket, he said.