Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:29am EDT
(Adds Singapore PM, details)
By Nopporn Wong-Anan
ARANYAPRATHET, Thailand, July 21 (Reuters) - Thailand and Cambodia held high-level talks on Monday aimed at resolving a military stand-off over the disputed Preah Vihear temple on their border.
After a week of troop reinforcements and diplomatic sparring, expectations for a breakthrough were low, but both sides expressed a desire to ease tensions in a dispute that regional neighbours fear could turn violent.
"We believe they will agree to our reasonable offer, which will help ease the tension along the border," Thai Supreme Commander Boonsrang Niumpradit told reporters before meeting Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Banh.
"We hope they will have a similar offer that we can accept," Boonsrang said, without giving details of the Thai proposal.
Officials said nothing to reporters during a break in the talks, held in the Thai border town of Aranyaprathet, 380 km (235 miles) from the 11th century temple awarded to Cambodia by an international court in 1962, a ruling that still rankles Thais.
At the heart of the dispute is a 4.6 sq km (1.8 sq mile) area around the temple, which sits on a jungle-clad escarpment that forms a natural boundary, that is claimed by both nations.
Cambodia complained to the U.N. Security Council on Friday about Thailand's violation of Cambodia's "sovereignty and territorial integrity", but did not ask the U.N. to intervene.
Hundreds of Thai and Cambodian troops have faced each other at the temple since last Tuesday, when the Thais moved into the area after Cambodian soldiers detained three protesters as they tried to plant a Thai flag at the site.
In a sign of easing tensions, soldiers agreed to keep weapons out of the temple itself, Cambodian commander Chea Mon said.
"We do not want any armed troops to disturb Buddhist monks who are praying there," he told Reuters.
NEIGHBOURS URGE RESTRAINT
The stand-off has revived memories of a 2003 spat over Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temple, which saw a mob setting fire to the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh, and worried neighbours.
The 10-country Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) urged members Thailand and Cambodia to show "utmost caution and restraint" and offered to help resolve the impasse.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, opening the annual ASEAN meeting in the city state, said the "situation has escalated dangerously" and the group "could not stand idly by without damaging its credibility".
Analysts say domestic politics in Thailand, where the temple is known as Khao Pra Viharn, have played a key role in fuelling the border fracas.
Preah Vihear's listing as a World Heritage site this month triggered political uproar in Bangkok, where the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) accused the government of selling out Thailand's history by initially backing the listing.
The PAD, a coalition of activists and royalists, is waging a street campaign against Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, whom they accuse of acting as a proxy for former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a coup in 2006.
"The PAD will use any tool, any instrument to bring down the Samak government. Khao Pra Viharn is a casualty of Thailand's domestic political crisis," Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a foreign affairs lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, told Reuters. (Additional reporting by Ek Madra in Phnom Penh and Melanie Lee in Singapore) (Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Alan Raybould and Roger Crabb)
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