Thailand's premier said today he would seek cooperation from his visiting Malaysian counterpart in the pursuit of militants blamed for deadly separatist violence that has plagued the Thai south this year.

Thaksin Shinawatra was to host talks with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Wednesday at the resort island of Phuket that would also flesh out development plans for the three southernmost Thai provinces.

An insurgency in the deep south near the Malaysian border has raged since January, with near-daily shootings of officials and security forces, bombings of police stations and markets and other attacks leaving more than 320 people dead.

Thai officials, analysts and Muslim religious figures have stressed that socio-economic development of the region and more respect from central authorities was vital to help stem the violence.

"We will talk about cooperation to develop the three provinces," Thaksin told reporters, referring to Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.

"We will also talk about cooperation on hunting down the attackers," the premier added before flying to Phuket, about 600 kilometres northwest of Yala.

Last week a government spokesman said the talks would focus on solving the violence, with Thaksin to present Abdullah with new information on the attacks and measures to quell the unrest.

The Thai premier had also announced a shake-up of security forces in the country's south after Thailand's respected queen complained about the continuing separatist campaign.

Round of golf

Thaksin, who has said the violence amounted to the biggest crisis of his premiership, replaced his defence minister last week.

Thaksin and Abdullah were to spend the night on the tropical island, where they are to play golf together tomorrow before traveling to Narathiwat to lay a cornerstone for a new bridge spanning the border separating the countries.

The visit comes just a day after violence flared anew in the south with the killing of a paramilitary volunteer and policemen, and the wounding of eight other people in a spate of gun and bomb attacks and armed robberies.

Earlier this year Thaksin visited Malaysia for talks with Abdullah, who pledged full support for Thailand's efforts to crush the militants.

Thailand and Malaysia agreed to create a "smart card" in August in a joint effort to better monitor people holding dual nationality, which Thailand alleges allows Muslim militants to come and go as they please.

Thaksin had raised Malaysia's hackles in late March when he said the perpetrators of a bomb attack which wounded dozens of civilians had slipped across the border.