"Core leaders of both the Patani United Liberation Organisation (PULO) and Bersatu have contacted us through senior figures in Malaysia to propose peace talks," the official said.

"Negotiations are expected to take place in one month after the cabinet is named, so possibly in early November, and negotiations would be organised in a neutral country like Singapore," the official said.

The military official told AFP that the general would assign regional military commanders to lead the negotiations.

Meanwhile Council of National Security's leader Gen Sonthi Bunyaratglin said Thursday he supported an idea to "talk" but not "negotiate" with separatists responsible for the southern violence.

New Fourth Army Region Commander Lt Gen Viroj Buacharoon said on Wednesday that he had received word from separatist groups who were keen to negotiate a peace deal.

"I agree with an idea to talk with the insurgents who are responsible for the violence in the southern provinces. But I want to stress that it would be a talk, not a negotiation," Sonthi said.

It would be up to Lt Gen Viroj over who will represent in the talk. "Our representative would be the same level as theirs," he said.

Viroj had said said the militants had taken the initiative, but he declined to elaborate on the identity of the particular groups or organisations.

The development suggests the insurgency in the Malay-speaking region has reached a new threshold. The previous government of Thaksin Shinawatra had refused to enter into a dialogue with any separatists.

PULO emerged in 1968 and became the biggest insurgent group in the region over the next two decades, but it largely fell apart in the 1990s.

Bersatu, which means "Unity", was an umbrella group created by PULO and a splinter group in 1997.