Thailand's military-backed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said he had no immediate plans to hold talks with insurgent leaders in the troubled south, after returning from a one-day visit to Malaysia.

But after a day of talks with Malaysian leaders about the conflict along their shared border, he indicated that the government was still uncertain who was behind nearly three years of unrest that has killed 1,500 people.

"Not at the moment," Surayud said when asked if he would open talks with insurgents in the mainly Muslim region.

"I will try to explain (my policies) to most of the Thai Muslim people. Instead of talking to the people who I don't know, I will talk to the ones that we know," he said.

Thai government officials had earlier indicated that they would like to hold talks with the insurgent leaders early next month in another country.

Asked if he had requested the extradition of militant leaders believed to be hiding in Malaysia, he said: "I don't have any information on them. I'm not a police officer. This is the responsibility of the security agencies."

Mending relations

Surayud said the purpose of his trip was to mend fences with Malaysia, after years of strained relations caused by the heavy-handed response to the unrest by deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

"My trip was to restore our relations with each other, and Thailand will show our sincerity in solving problems in the future, which will benefit both Thailand and Malaysia," he said.

The premier said that Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was willing to help Thailand resolve the conflict, if Bangkok requested assistance.

But he said the two leaders had not discussed the possibility of holding any future peace talks in Malaysia.

His comments came after another upsurge in violence this week in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, where insurgents staged a raid on a military camp that left one soldier dead and four others wounded. It was the 13th fatality since Sunday in the conflict.

Last month's coup in Bangkok sparked hopes for peace in the region after a Muslim army general led the ousting of Thaksin, who had been widely criticized for his hardline tactics in the conflict.