Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont and his visiting Malaysia counterpart Abdullah Ahmad Badawi hold the informal discussion during a round of golf and following dinner in the resort island of Phuket.

The discussion also included the possible return of 130 Thai Muslim who sought refuge in Malaysia since 2005 due to fear of their safety and Thailand failed several attempts to take them back since then.

Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram and his counterpart Syed Hamid Albar also joined the game.

Seeking cooperation from Kuala Lumpur is part of a move by the government to contain violence in the deep south erupted since the beginning of 2004 and killed some 2,000 people so far.

Despite of deeming as Thai domestic affairs, Malaysia mattered the situation in the deep south due to possible spill over to its territory. Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed warned earlier of danger that terrorists might use the unrest region as their playground to orchestrating violence. The Thai government, however, dismissed the warning.

The two premiers would formally discuss on the southern issues again when Abdullah was in Bangkok Monday. Other issues in the meeting Monday at the government house would include Joint Development Strategy, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand Growth Triangle project, according to an official at the Thai foreign ministry. Abdullah will stay in Thailand until Tuesday.

Latest violence took place in the deep south Sunday as three people died in a shoot out in Yala while one other injured during an attack to a train in Narathiwat.

Three Muslim in Yala's Thanto district were shot dead at about 7.30 a.m. Sunday while riding motorbikes to work in a rubber plantation. Duramae Samae, his wife Sitisohroh Nimu and his mother in law Koriya Baha were found dead on a small road in the district. Police believed the gunmen wanted to create trouble to maintain momentum of the violence.

Separately, a group of militant sprayed M16 rifles into a train in Narathiwat's Rangae district and injured an official of State Railway of Thailand who was in the last bogie.

Militants hid in the jungle opened fired to the last bogie of the train en routing from Yala to Sugai Kolok while it was moving out a station in Ban Salotadae in Rangae district. Apart of the ill fate official, other passengers in the train were safe.

The Nation