Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Vanasathidya plans to visit the three southernmost provinces on April 24 and has announced a plan to involve 300 recently graduated Thai-Muslim students in the development of the Muslim-majority region, the country's least developed area.

Chidchai, who is acting on behalf of caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, did not say how the 300 would be included in any development scheme or whether they would be hired by the state.

Local residents in the Malay-speaking region often complain about a lack of social mobility and point out that about 80 per cent of the civil servants in the region are non-Muslims from other regions.

Anwar Saleh, a former Democrat MP for Pattani, called for the government to get beyond window-dressing and devise a comprehensive strategy for the region.

While he welcomed the decision to involve young Muslims, Anwar said the Thaksin government had a long-stranding prejudice against Muslim youths who had studied abroad.

A number of Thai security officers have said they are concerned that Muslim students from the South who study abroad return with radical ideology that promotes separatism in the region.

But Anwar argued that resentments were home-grown and that this government had failed to bring the situation under control because it did not understand the spirit of the community in the region.

"There is no unity at the policy level, and initiatives carried out in the region are done with little coordination," he said.

Meanwhile a man was killed and four people were wounded in two shooting attacks by suspected insurgents in the deep South yesterday, as police claimed that the situation was improving.

Maj-General Adul Saengsingkoew, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 9, yesterday said police had taken out 466 arrest warrants and detained 123 individuals. Police have concrete evidence that at least 105 of the 123 are linked to the unrest in the region, Adul said.

Adul insisted that security agencies were making progress in containing major attacks. "Shootings continue to take place on a daily basis, but I have succeeded in preventing major clashes and attacks by the opposition forces. Their aim is to find ways to discredit the authority of the state apparatus," he said.