Seni Pramoj, a former diplomat who is credited with preventing the United States from attacking Thailand during World War II, died today. Mr. Seni was 92 and had served three short terms as Thailand's Prime Minister.

Mr. Seni died of kidney failure and complications of heart disease, doctors at Bangkok General Hospital said. A longtime smoker, Mr. Seni had been hospitalized since 1995 with heart disease and emphysema.

Mr. Seni, as Thai Ambassador to Washington in 1942, when Thailand was under Japanese occupation, refused to deliver a declaration of war against the United States and Britain to American officials. Soon after, he began organizing a guerrilla force known as the Seri Thai -- or Free Thai -- to fight Japanese forces occupying his country.

After the war, the United States did not treat Thailand as a defeated enemy, in part because of the role of Mr. Seni and the Free Thai movement.