Thailand's coup leader today confirmed that authorities want to hold peace talks with insurgent groups battling the government in Muslim-majority southern provinces.

"I agree with holding talks but I don't want to call it negotiation as we are still waiting to hear about progress on the talks and which officials will represent Thailand," General Sonthi Boonyaratglin told reporters.

He expressed optimism that peace negotiations with the rebels could quickly restore normalcy in three southern provinces bordering Malaysia, where separatist and other unrest has killed more than 1,500 since January 2004.

"If we have a chance to talk to each other, that could be the way to solve the problem," he said.

An official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that authorities would hold talks with two insurgent groups early next month.

"Core leaders of both the Patani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo) and Bersatu have contacted us through senior figures in Malaysia to propose peace talks," the official said.

"Negotiations are expected to take place in one month after the cabinet is named, so possibly in early November, and negotiations would be organised in a neutral country like Singapore," the official said.

Pulo welcomes talks

Lieutenant General Viroach Buacharoon, the newly appointed southern army commander, later told AFP that initial talks had already begun between government intermediaries and a group of rebels.

"They approached us and we responded. They approached because they wanted to send positive signals to new government," he said.

But a Pulo official living in exile in Europe said his group was still waiting to hear from Bangkok on whether talks would go ahead.

"We, Pulo, are always waiting for that time, for negotiations to find a solution for peace in the southern provinces," the group's foreign relations chief told AFP by telephone from Europe.

"We Pulo are ready for that, and we are waiting for the other side only," Kasturi Mahkota said.

"Our main demand from the beginning is independence, but the world has changed, so we are ready to compromise," he added.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman in Singapore said they had not yet received any request from the Thai authorities regarding using the city state as a venue for talks.

Two-year insurgency

The Sept 19 military overthrow of prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra sparked hope that a two-year insurgency in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces could be quelled.

There have been almost daily killings since the conflict erupted in January 2004, and Thaksin's heavyhanded policies were blamed by many for worsening the unrest.

Sonthi, who led the coup that ousted Thaksin, is himself a Muslim and had proposed launching negotiations before he seized power.

The region was an independent, ethnic Malay sultanate until Thailand annexed it a century ago. Separatist violence has erupted periodically ever since.

Pulo emerged in 1968 and became the biggest insurgent group in the region over the next two decades, but it largely fell apart in the 1990s.

Bersatu, which means "unity", was an umbrella group created by Pulo and a splinter group in 1997.

Neither has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks in Thailand's south, where analysts and officials say organized crime and local police corruption also play strong roles in the unrest.