Malaysian police said Tuesday they arrested three people and seized devices believed to be home-made bombs that could be linked to the Muslim insurgency across its border with Thailand.

"I confirm their arrests but I can't elaborate because it is still under investigation," national police chief Musa Hassan told reporters.

The three were detained in a house in northern Kelantan state, which borders Thailand, where police found the devices along with chemical fertilisers that could be used in bomb-making, the Star daily reported.

Quoting unnamed security sources, the paper said the bombs were produced in Malaysia by suspected Thai nationals for possible use in Thailand's restive southern provinces.

Musa confirmed that bomb-making equipment was found in the suspects' possession.

He could not verify the nationality of the suspects, who did not have identification documents, but said "they are not Malaysians."

Raging insurgency

The national police chief said it was too early to confirm a link to Thai insurgents but that the security services on both sides of the border were investigating the incident together.

Last week, the prime ministers of both countries made a historic joint visit to Thailand's restive south in a fresh bid to curb the raging separatist insurgency there.

Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva had said then the two countries were "strengthening our bonds" after years of mistrust over Thai allegations that Malaysia was failing to curb cross-border raids by militants.

The two countries are separated by a porous, 650-kilometre border and tensions have simmered in the mostly Muslim Thai region, an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate annexed in 1902 by mainly Buddhist Thailand.

The latest spate of violence erupted in January 2004 and since then more than 4,000 people have been killed in the impoverished region.

- AFP