Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told Malaysians to avoid visiting southern Thailand as he prepared for talks with his Thai counterpart over recent violence there, reports said today.

Abdullah said he had asked Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar to arrange a date for the meeting with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, The Star reported. The Thai premier last week said he hoped to visit Kuala Lumpur this Friday.

"I ask Malaysians not to go to (southern) Thailand now and be a bit patient," said Abdullah, who is also internal security minister.

High on the agenda will be tackling the issue of militants with dual Thai-Malaysian nationality, who are accused of carrying out a March 27 bombing in a Thai border town which wounded 28 people, including eight Malaysian tourists.

Some 800 Malaysians usually cross the Thai border each day but the number has dropped by half since the bomb blast, the New Straits Times said.

M'sian villages harbouring militants

Fears escalated further after the theft last week of some 1.4 tonnes of explosives from a quarry in southern Yala province by a gang of suspected Islamic separatists. Thai authorities fear an attack during the Songkran water festival in mid-April, which is the kingdom's main holiday season.

Thaksin admitted the problems in the south were escalating, and said he had asked Thai authorities to compile a list of suspected militants holding dual citizenship. They would have to choose which nationality to keep, he said.

"We have to clearly tell Malaysia that currently Malaysian villages are harbouring militants. We are not accusing them but we want Malaysia to take action as it has pledged to cooperate," he said.

Malaysian officials have called on Thaksin to back up his charges that the culprits behind the attack in Sungai Golok escaped to Malaysia, saying they could not take action without accurate information. - AFP