The committee will include representatives of relevant authorities, such as the immigration departments of both countries, he said.

An estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people are believed to hold both Thai and Malaysian citizenship.

Speaking after a meeting with caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Najib said Thailand had begun registering its citizens by providing them with smart cards that recorded the person's thumbprint.

These cards, he said, would enable theauthorities to verify a person's citizenship.

"We can't do it simply by checking their names because these people have two names - one Thai and one Malaysian," he said.

People holding Thai and Malaysian citizenship will be given a certain period of time in which to choose one.

"Thailand is very eager to settle this problem," Najib said.

Responding to a question about Thailand's investigation of financial support for insurgents in the southernmost provinces, Najib said there was no mention of it during his talks with Thaksin.

The Malaysian deputy prime minister is here for two days to attend the 46th General Border Committee meeting. He met Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya to discuss cross-border cooperation and the situation in the deep South.

Chidchai said later that he had pressed for close monitoring of the movements of insurgents, who committed acts of violence in the predominantly Muslim deep South and then sought safe haven in Malaysia. Some of them hold dual nationality, he said.

Najib believed that most of the so-called insurgents were not in Malaysia but had already left for third countries, mostly in the Middle East, Chidchai said.

Two and a half years of violence in the deep South has resulted in the deaths of more than 1,300 people. No organisation has claimed responsibility for the violence but the government believes insurgents have orchestrated the unrest to press for the separation of the predominantly Muslim region from Thailand.

Fresh violence occurred yesterday when an explosion at a market killed a soldier and injured nine others in Narathiwat's Waeng district. The bomb was hidden in a motorcycle and set off by mobile phone at about 9am, when Private Suphakit Thongvisuth, 22, and others in his group were guarding the market, police said.

Suphakit was killed instantly. Seven security officials in the group and two civilian shoppers were injured. The blast damaged four motorcycles belonging to the officials, along with a van and a car parked nearby.

In neighbouring Yala province, a bomb exploded at the side of a road, slightly injuring a policeman who was on his way to provide security for teachers in Yaha district.

The bomb was triggered when Lance Corporal Chakraphong Kwankeow got out of his car to inspect a clump of lemon grass at the side of the road. He suffered minor injuries to his right hand.

Foo Yee Ping,

Piyanart Srivalo

The Nation