Malaysia said today it will not seal its border with Thailand despite allegations Thai Islamic militants are conducting arms training in the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is also Malaysia's defence minister, said closing the border would seriously hurt the local population and trading activities on the border.

"It can be taken but sealing off the border is a very drastic step. It would be considered a very radical step," Najib said when asked whether closing the frontier was a solution to cross-border movement.

"It will lead to the total collapse of the local economy particularly on the Thai side. It will also disrupt the normal flow of trade and movement of people between our two countries."

Najib said Malaysia had no knowledge of the existence of camps allegedly being used to train militants, as claimed by Thai Prime Minister Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and members of his administration.

Photographic evidence

On Friday last week, Thaksin said "absolutely one group of them (insurgents) has been trained in Malaysia", particularly in the jungles of Kelantan, without the knowledge or support of the Malaysian government.

Kelantan borders southern Thailand, where an Islamic separatist insurgency has claimed more than 560 lives this year.

Najib urged Thailand to convey all information on militants through proper channels and in a confidential way.

"The allegations was reported publicly so even if the camps existed they (militants) would have taken immediate action to shut down the camp and dispose all evidence," he said.

Najib said Malaysia had yet to receive the alleged photographic evidence that Thai Islamic militants had trained in Malaysia and the name list of militants involved.

The Thai government said yesterday it had photographic evidence of training grounds in Malaysia's Kelantan.

Expressing confidence ties between the two Southeast Asian neighbours would not suffer by the allegations, Najib said Malaysia would not file a formal diplomatic protest against Thailand.

"It will not affect ties between Malaysia and Thailand. We want good ties with Thailand to continue but we would like cases like this to be handled with more care," he said.