Thai officials have resumed peace talks with a prominent separatist leader living in Malaysia, a Thai defence source said today after the government scrapped plans for similar dialogue last month.

Thai military officers representing the defence ministry had met recently with Bersatu leader Wan Kadir Che Man for talks aimed at ending violence in the Muslim majority south, the defence department source said.

"There are talks between Thai officials and Wan Kadir... the talks are ongoing at an official level," the source told AFP , without indicating when the low-level talks had resumed.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had agreed to the initial meeting in May saying the government was not recognising the group but wanted to obtain information to help it quell the violence which has killed more than 200 people.

However the proposal met with resistance, particularly from Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh who is responsible for security affairs and who said the talks were dangerous and would boost the status of the separatists.

Media pressure

The talks were finally scrapped in early June, with the government citing media pressure.

A Muslim insurgency raged in the south until the 1980s, but the movement fragmented and attacks dropped off until January when a raid on an army weapons depot left four soldiers dead and sparked the latest wave of violence.

Some 69 suspected Thai Muslim separatists surrendered to security forces in the kingdom's restive south on Saturday.

The surrender came as local media reported about 5,000 southern officials, roughly half of which were teachers, were seeking to be transferred from the south to escape the bloodshed.