news analysis Shocking by the polite standards of Southeast Asian diplomacy, the barbs and accusations traded recently between Malaysia and Thailand have exposed a major rift over the Muslim insurgency on their border.

At the height of the row last month, Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon said he had stopped speaking with Malaysia, accusing his counterpart Syed Hamid Albar of grandstanding over 131 Thai Muslims whose flight over the border triggered a diplomatic tussle.

Syed Hamid had enraged the Thais by saying they should be more "mature" over a consumer boycott called by Malaysian activists, which Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra reacted to in characteristically angry fashion.