Her Majesty the Queen has instructed that royal project areas in Pattani's Nong Chik district be expanded to cover residential areas so that workers can avoid the risk of attack while travelling to and from work, General Naphol Bounthap, the deputy royal aide de camp, said yesterday.

The move was made after three workers at the royal project in the district were killed and three others injured in a gun attack on Monday.

The homes of workers at the project are about four kilometres from the project site and they travel to work by car, leaving them vulnerable to attack by militants, Naphol said.

"It seems the militants kept a close eye on the workers for a long time, and they saw no military guard on the day they launched the attack," he said.

The Queen initiated the experimental farm project in Nong Chik to provide jobs and generate income for women who have been left widowed because of the violence in the region.

Her Majesty was worried about the safety of local people and wanted the authorities to arm them for self-protection. The Royal Aide De Camp Department was training local residents as security defence volunteers to protect their homes in 33 districts of three southernmost provinces, Naphol said.

The training began three years ago and there are now 33 trained and equipped companies of defence volunteers.

The government is struggling to contain the violence in the deep South which erupted at the beginning of 2004 and has left more than 2,000 people dead to date.

The National Intelligence Agency's deputy chief, Sirichai Chotirat, told the Cabinet that the militants in the deep South had intensified their violence, laying down a challenge to the government to react harshly, propagate human rights violations and thus deepen the divide and instigate religious conflict.

But the government would handle the situation through legal and peaceful means and try to win the hearts and minds of local people, a source close to the Cabinet meeting quoted Sirichai as saying.

He suggested cooperation and operational unity in the military, as well as diplomacy, would make for better understanding in the local and international communities.

"The government has employed the right strategy and direction but there has been a lack of unity on the ground," Sirichai was quoted as saying to the cabinet.

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont will visit the deep South today to review the situation with officials and inspect rural development projects. The premier and Army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin met twice yesterday at Government House to discuss the southern unrest.