P Penh won't budge

East Asia Summit foreign ministers hold hands during the East Asian Summit Foreign Ministers Consultations in Singapore yesterday.

Cambodia yesterday launched a diplomatic offensive against Thailand following the failure to resolve the week-long military stand-off at the disputed Preah Vihear Temple.

Gen Boonsrang Niumpradit, supreme commander of the Thai armed forces, meanwhile, said more Cambodian troops had been stationed at the border after both countries failed to reach an agreement on Monday.

Boonsrang, who led a Thai delegation to a consultation meeting with Cambodian counterparts, said Cambodia had been adamant on its position, particularly regarding the use of a French-drawn map demarcating the two countries' border.

As a result, the Cambodian side, led by Defence Minister Tea Banh, did not accept Thailand's conditions for resolution of the border dispute.

Thousands of Thai and Cambodian soldiers are currently on alert at the border.

As for Cambodia, its representatives yesterday asked Asean and the United Nations to convene special sessions to help resolve the "grave" border stand-off.

However, Thailand wanted to use bilateral mechanisms to try to end the row, saying it was too early to take the issue to regional or international levels.

Gen Boonsrang said a resolution to the conflict should be easier to reach after Cambodia holds its general election on Sunday (July 27).

In addition, he said both countries should consider sharing interests to end the dispute.

The Thai-Cambodian row was discussed over lunch yesterday by the 10-member Asean grouping in Singapore, where foreign ministers met on the sidelines of a ministerial conference.

Singapore's foreign minister George Yeo invited all ministers to the session after Cambodian foreign minister Hor Namhong proposed that an Asean Inter-Ministerial Group, made up of foreign ministers of Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Laos, should try to help end the Thai-Cambodian dispute.

The Singaporean minister also told his Cambodian counterpart it was too soon to ask the UN to deal with the issue.

Thailand's deputy prime minister Sahas Bunditkul, who led the Thai delegation here, only joined the lunch session on condition that it had no official agenda and that no records or documents of any kind would come out of the meeting.

Sahas insisted that the General Border Committee (GBC) of Thailand and Cambodia, and other bilateral talks, would fix the conflict.

"Asean has offered its facilities to Cambodia and Thailand, but only in the event that the two sides need further support to find a solution. For now, we feel it's premature," Sahas told reporters after the lunch. The situation was not as "grave" as painted by Cambodia, he said.

The Cambodian foreign minister earlier asked the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting next Monday to discuss measures to help resolve the conflict.

The Cambodian ambassador to the US also handed letters to the presidents of the UN Security Council and the General Assembly about Cambodia's request.

Cambodian spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Phnom Penh would also seek a ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for boundary demarcation, but the Thai Foreign Ministry's permanent secretary Norachit Sinhaseni said this was unlikely.

The ICJ ruled in 1962 that the 11th-century Hindu temple was part of Cambodia, but it became an issue of conflict after the temple was listed as a World Heritage site despite a late objection from Thailand.