"We do not know what General Sonthi's remarks meant. Domestic calls within Thailand are not routed through Singapore," read the statement issued late Monday.

 "It does not make business or technical sense to route domestic calls via another country. Doing so will incur additional and unnecessary network resources, including costly international bandwidth, and degrade the quality of service."

The Thai junta, which ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in September, has reportedly reverted to using walkie-talkies after voicing concerns over the foreign owernship of Thai telecom firms.

Thailand's biggest mobile phone operator, AIS, is a subsidiary of Shin Corp, the telecom giant that Thaksin sold to Singapore's state-linked Temasek Holdings in a controversial tax-free deal last year. The junta chiefs already changed their mobile phone system from AIS to another system.

"The armed forces are currently experiencing a problem. We pick up the phone and the line runs to Singapore. We can talk about confidential official matters, but it goes to Singapore," Sonthi said.

Communications minister Sitthichai Pokaiyaudoom also summoned executives of Shin Satellite, which transmits mobile phone signals, and told them to reject any requests to tap phones.

The statement said, "As an international telecommunication hub, Singapore maintains a strict and professional operating environment to safeguard the integrity of all communications which terminate in or transit through Singapore."

Relations between Singapore and Thailand turned sour last week after Singapore allowed ousted Thaksin to meet its Deputy Prime Minister S Jayakumar recently.

 Thailand protested against the meeting by suspending all bilateral high-ranking meetings with Singapore including those of Foreign Minister George Yeo.

The Nation