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The problem of Preah Vihear is not yet over despite an agreement on troop redeployment. Phnom Penh has raised a new claim over other ruins - Ta Muen Thom (or Ta Moan Thom in Cambodian script) located on the Phnom Dongrak Mountain bordering Surin province and Cambodia's Odor Meanchey.

 The new dispute, at the 13th-century temple, started when Cambodian officials said some 70 Thai soldiers occupying the archaeological site since July 27 refused to allow Cambodian officials to enter it.

The Thai Foreign Ministry countered that Thai troops had been in the area for years and the newcomers to the area were the Cambodians - not the Thais.

Thai Army chief Anupong Paochinda insisted that the presence of Thai troops at the site was justified as "Ta Muen Thom is situated in Thai territory".

Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Banh, however, told reporters in Phnom Penh that the temple "is clearly under our sovereignty, and we have to demand it back".

Hundreds of Cambodian troops were reportedly deployed to an area some 200 metres from the temple. Some 50 Cambodian soldiers are very close to their Thai counterparts.

Force might not be used as Tea Banh has said Phnom Penh's position is to talk to get Thai troops to withdraw from the temple.

The dispute and negotiations over the Ta Muen complex are not new. They occurred a decade ago when Cambodia accused Thailand of moving its troops to occupy the Khmer complex in 1998. The issue was raised at a meeting of the Joint Boundary Committee in November 2001. Both sides maintained their positions and due to different references there was no common ground to settle the dispute.

 Cambodia claimed the 23rd record of the Siam-Franco boundary demarcation made in 1908 suggested that two of three temples in the areas - namely Ta Muen Thom and Ta Muen Touch - are located on the Cambodian side.

 Unfortunately, marks of the border drawn between Siam and France in 1908 have been erased or damaged by war and nature. Local people said the boundary marks were removed during the 1980s when the Khmer Rouge, of which Thailand was then an ally, used the area as its stronghold against the government in Phnom Penh.

Chulalongkorn University security expert Surachart Bamrungsuk wrote in a Security Study Bulletin that the L 7017 map used by Thailand and the L 7016 used by Cambodia as reference suggested that Ta Muen Thom is situated on the Cambodian side, while the other two - Ta Muen Touch and Ta Muen - are in Thailand.

 Army chief Anupong thinks differently, and insists that the L7017 map - the one the academic referred to - indicated that Ta Muen Thom is in Thailand.

The Fine Arts Department's director-general, Kriengkrai Smapatchalit, said a Thai official had found that the department registered it as Thai national archaeological site 73 years ago.

 Thailand had also invested millions of baht to restore it and nominated Ta Muen Thom to be listed as a World Heritage site, he said.  Cambodia also listed Ta Muen Thom amongst its national archaeological sites some years ago.

The unilateral register made by the Thai and Cambodian authorities, and even different maps used by both sides, are not good references for international talks. Only a clear boundary line will indicate the exact location of the temples.

Thailand and Cambodia have usually used the Siam-Franco treaty, which specifies the watershed in the Phnom Dongrak Mountain area as the boundary of the two countries.

 Unfortunately, the watershed is not easy to find as nature has shifted it in the past century. Boundary experts on both sides know very well that demarcation is a very difficult job and is possible only when the two countries enjoy good relations. Negotiations and demarcation during a military stand-off are definitely impossible.