According to "The Local" online, Foreign Minister Carl Bildt claimed Thai Foreign Ministry's spokesman Tharit Charungvat had misinterpreted what was actually said at the meeting with his Thai counterpart, Nitya Phibulsonggram.

 "I spoke about freedom of speech and organisations in Sweden, irrespective of where one comes from, but also that we obviously do not tolerate violence and that in this case I am aware of certain tendencies in that direction," said a short statement from Bildt, read out over the weekend by his advisor, Martina Rznk.

Tharit told The Nation in an interview last week in Hamburg, Germany, following a meeting between Nitya and Bildt that "Sweden was watching this group of people carefully."

"The Swedish authorities are ready and willing to share intelligence at our request," Tharit was quoted as saying in The Nation. He could not be reached for comment.

According The Local, Bildt added that cooperation with Thailand "would be in accordance with Swedish law so that the freedom of movement for Swedish citizens and foreign citizens in exile would be protected."

Sweden and its nongovernmental organisations have historically played a mediating role between rebel groups and the respective governments they were fighting.

Members from Patani United Liberation Organisation and the Free Aceh Movement (Gam) have taken refuge in the country

Swedish law, like other European countries, prohibits the monitoring of activities by exiled groups as they are not considered terrorists.

Like the Acehnese from the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Medan, a number of ethnic Malays from Thailand's deep South have taken refuge or asylum in Sweden and other European countries for fear of prosecution by the Thai government.

The Nation