Thai and Cambodian Military Chiefs in Talks to Calm Tensions

Military chiefs from Thailand and Cambodia were holding talks today in an effort to lower tensions a day after a border battle left two soldiers dead.

The commanders were discussing troop levels and weaponry at the meeting in Thailand near the scene of the clashes adjacent to a 900-year-old temple site.

Both governments said they were anxious to calm the situation and resolve the bitter row over the land near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple through peaceful negotiations.

But Thai villagers living nearby fled the area clutching rice and a few possessions. Escaping by any means possible - pick-up trucks, motorbikes and motorized ploughs - they caused long tailbacks on roads leading from the site.

More than 430 Thais out of 1,500 living and working in Cambodia heeded their government's advice to leave the country amid fears of reprisals if the deadly border clashes escalated.

Cambodian riot police guarded the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh against attack as nationalist sentiment in the city ran high. It was torched by a mob five years ago following claims that another ancient Cambodian temple - Angkor Wat - belonged to Thailand.

But after yesterday's hour-long clashes in which two Cambodian soldiers died and seven others on both sides were wounded, calm returned to the area.

Cambodia continued to hold 13 Thai soldiers that it said had surrendered during the fighting, though it would hand them back as soon as possible.

As the talks got under way the diplomatic noises from both sides were conciliatory, though the border dispute over the 1.8 square miles of scrubland next to the temple has proved intractable.

Thai prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat, said he was keen to find a peaceful resolution. "Our policy to resolve this conflict is through negotiations," he said. "Though there was a clash yesterday, it was not a major one."

But Thailand's foreign ministry protested to Phnom Penh's chargé d'affaires. It accused Cambodian troops of opening fire on its troops while they were patrolling on Thai soil.

Cambodia's foreign minister, Hor Namhong, said the situation had eased since the clashes. But his officials maintained that Thai troops fired on Cambodians on their own land in an effort to drive them back.

The border row dates from a 1962 ruling by the International Court of Justice which decided the temple was Cambodian. But the judgment was ambiguous over the adjoining 1.8 square mile plot, allowing both sides to claim it.

The decades-old dispute flared into life in July after the UN granted the carved sandstone temple World Heritage status, reviving Thai nationalists' feelings of sleight over the original judgment.