"The children want to extend their education in our country and don't want to bear any more hardships in Thailand," spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy said.

The children urged authorities in Vientiane to coordinate with their counterparts to bring their parents - "refugees" living in Huay Nam Khao village in Phetchabun - back for a reunion with them in Laos, he said.

Laos' deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Thongloun Sisoulith, briefed Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram on the Hmong situation during a meeting at the foreign ministry in his official visit to Thailand.

Local police in Phetchabun secretly deported the group of 27 Hmong, mostly teenagers, in December 2005, allegedly without Vientiane's knowledge. US-based Hmong groups and the US Embassy in Vientiane have been pressing Lao authorities to reveal the children's whereabouts for the past 18 months.

Laos officially informed Thailand, when Nitya was in Vientiane last month, that it had found 21 out of the 27 and reunited them with their kin in their home villages.

There was no word, however, on the fate of five boys or an adult woman reportedly part of the group forced back to Laos.

After news broke that the children had been "found", their parents, who fled from Laos to Phetchabun with their families in late 2004, requested authorities to bring the children to them.

Vientiane held a "reunion" ceremony for the youngsters with their relatives last week.

Three of them were now in the capital Vientiane, seven in Xieng Khuang, eight in Vientiane province, two in Xayaboury and the one remaining child was adopted by a Vientiane resident as she had no relatives, Yong said. The Lao government would put all its efforts into searching for the remaining Hmong, he said.

About 7,000 Hmong have sought shelter in Phetchabun. Many of them claim to have been close associated with the force set up by the US' CIA to fight the communists during the 1960s-'70s. They claim to have fled from suppression at home.

Thailand regards the Hmong as illegal migrants and wants to deport them to their place of origin.

Laos has insisted they be sent back and demanded Thailand honour an agreement made by the General Border Committee on December 19. Thailand deported 53 Hmong last November and 16 others in January.

A group of 155 is still in custody in Nong Khai after a bid to deport them  in January failed due to intervention from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and human rights groups.

Amnesty International and other groups say some of the Hmong in Phetchabun - and those at Nong Khai - are genuine refugees "at serious risk of persecution or death" if returned home.

Western nations have offered to resettle the refugees at Nong Khai but the Thai government has put resettlements abroad on hold without any public explanation.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation