"We don't know the exact structure of the leading organisation, but we know for sure they have laid spawn cells in villages in the three southernmost provinces," Sonthi said in a meeting with 44 journalists.

Like the communist movement, the organisation has placed a unit of its armed forces - called Rundi Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) - in every few villages, he said.

"We are now trying our best to access its leadership. Unless we can reach out to the top structure, we will never solve the problem," he added.

The BRN-Coordinate has the clear objective of separating the three southernmost provinces from the Kingdom, Sonthi said.

The separatists might not be able to defeat the Army, but would employ other tactics to create violence and provoke harsh reaction from the government - and then call for international intervention - the Army chief said.

Unlike the previous generation of separatists, such as the Patani United Liberation Organisation - or Mujaheedin - the BRN-Coordinate recruits only capable youngsters aged between 20 and 35 into its organisation.

"Like the CIA in the US, they picked only the best and brightest young people for the organisation," he said.

Well-educated people from abroad have been teaching in Islamic boarding schools or other religious schools to implant the ideology and train those young people, he added. Efforts to curb the problem are divided into two areas - political and military - he said.

The political challenge is one of reconciliation to win the hearts and minds of 99 per cent of the population in the predominantly Muslim region. The Southern Border Province Administrative Centre would be responsible for bringing justice and development to the region in order to keep the Muslim population on the side of the government.

The military effort, said Sonthi, was to deal with the remaining one per cent of the population believed to be insurgents.

"We know all of their names and follow their footsteps closely," he said. "We have to use military means to fight these groups. But fighting these militants is not an easy task, as they are familiar with the area and have freedom of movement."

Meanwhile, in Pattani province yesterday, a clerk from the Yarang Tambon Administrative Organisa-tion survived a gun battle with a group of militants at about 11.30am.

Four gunmen on two motorbikes opened fire on Chamnarn Chartri while he was driving. He jumped out of his car and exchanged gunfire with his attackers for several minutes before the gunmen fled.