"We need to look into the ramifications and implications, the cost and how it is going to affect people to people contact and the legitimate free movement of the people from both sides," Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told the New Straits Times.

 Syed Hamid said Malaysia was open to measures to stop illegal cross-border activity after Thailand announced the move, seen as a bid to curb an insurgency in its Muslim-majority south.

 Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will arrive Sunday in Thailand and is expected to meet with his Thai counterpart Surayud Chulanont.

 "I think this will be one of the subjects that will be touched on by both leaders," Syed Hamid said.

 Thailand already has a three-kilometre (two-mile) wall on its southern border between the Thai town of Sadao and the Malaysian town of Padang Besar.

 Surayud said Sunday his government would extend the existing wall south by 27 kilometres to Yala, one of three restive southern provinces bordering northern Malaysia.

 Apart from reining in the three-year insurgency that has claimed more than 1,800 lives, Surayud said the new concrete wall would help prevent an influx of illegal workers into Thailand.

 "It has always been the intention of both countries to stop smuggling and illegal border crossings," Syed Hamid was quoted as saying.

 "Whatever is considered to be the most effective, should be looked into by both sides," he said.

 The ongoing violence in southern Thailand has strained its relationship with Malaysia, with reports of insurgent training camps in Malaysia and claims that Thai restaurants there are funding the separatist movement.

 Thailand also believes that militants behind the insurgency are abusing dual citizenship to escape across the border with Malaysia after committing attacks.

Agence France Presse