Thai authorities today said they are tracking down more members of a baby-trafficking gang in the country's south after two women were arrested for allegedly selling infants to rich Malaysians.

Immigration police on the Thai-Malaysian border arrested 52-year-old Daeng Fongsuwan after intercepting her, because of her "suspicious" behaviour, and finding that she had a newborn baby girl swaddled in cloth and hidden in her clothes.

She was charged with collaborating to traffic a human, using fake travel documents, and avoiding immigration procedures - charges which carry a penalty of five years in jail - local police in Songkhla province told AFP .

Daeng confessed her involvement in baby-trafficking and led police to a second suspect, 40-year-old Sureerat Wongboontham, who was arrested yesterday on suspicion of masterminding the gang but denied involvement.

Two more suspects

Daeng told police that Sureerat hired her to smuggle babies to her sister in the Malaysian town of Butterworth for a fee of 5,000 baht (RM475) each time, and that Sunday's trip was her fourth.

The parents of the baby, who is about two weeks old, have not been found and she is now being cared for in hospital.

Immigration police said they were looking for two more women involved in the baby trafficking gang, including Sureerat's sister in Butterworth and a woman who provided children from Songkhla which lies on the Malaysian border.

"Based on the confession of the first suspect, we are still looking for two more women," the official told AFP .

Thai police said they could not confirm newspaper reports that the babies were being sold for up to 100,000 baht (RM9,500) in Malaysia.

Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist nation but the five southern provinces bordering Malaysia are home to a majority Muslim population. - AFP