With many suspected Jemaah Islamiah operatives still at large, terrorism experts have warned that lax border control between Malaysia and Thailand could provide opportunities for militants to operate in the region.

According to a Washington Post report o­n Monday, regional terrorists have been finding easy passage into Thailand, where they re-strategise, via the porous Malaysian-Thai border at Sungai Golok.

"It's a great point of transit. It's also a great place to do business," a Southeast Asian terrorism expert, Zachary Abuza, was quoted as saying.

"Thailand is important to groups like al-Qaeda because it has always been a centre of people-smuggling, gun-smuggling, document-forging, and it has such a large underground economy," added Abuza, who is based at the Simmons College in Boston, United States.

Among the suspected militants that were named in the report as having passed from Malaysia into Thailand were fugitive JI leader, Riduan Isamuddin or Hambali ( photo ), al-Qaeda operative Mohammed Mansour Jabarah and Mas Selamat Kasturi, a Malaysian national who is said to have played a key role in JI's Singapore branch.

Hambali, who is wanted by authorities in Malaysia and Singapore, was last placed in southern Thailand but this has since been denied by Thai authorities.