His Majesty the King has urged the government to apply the emergency decree appropriately and only when necessary in order to avoid misunderstandings and disputes in the three southernmost provinces.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the message had been conveyed to him during a private audience with His Majesty on Tuesday.

Speaking in his weekly radio address, Thaksin dismissed growing fears that the government would use the controversial decree inappropriately.

Thaksin pointed out that the entire Cabinet had to give its approval for the use of the decree and specify which of its 16 articles could be used.

The decree will also be restricted in terms of time and geographical location, he added.

Few arrests have been made in the 19 months of unrest, and no one has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, he said.

But Thaksin stated that the authorities would soon be calling about a hundred suspected Muslim militants in for questioning.

He said there was good reason to believe that these individuals had been involved in the ongoing insurgency, including the assassinations of officials, and that

this new decree would allow officials to deal with them appropriately.

Critics said the government had enough power to detain or call these individuals in for questioning under martial law, which the new decree replaced.

They said that the problem was not that the government lacked power but rather that officials sent to the region were incompetent and unable to deal with the crisis on the ground.

The controversial decree, which gives the prime minister absolute power, has been widely condemned by human-rights groups and media outlets, while the UN Human Rights Committee says the decree is in violation of international norms and treaties.

The decree gives the government the power to censor media reports and grant impunity to government officials so that they need not face disciplinary, civil or legal proceedings as a result of their conduct.

The authorities can detain suspects for up to 30 days without charges, search and arrest without warrants and tap phones, among other actions aimed at quelling the unrest.

Thaksin vowed yesterday that the authorities would not abuse their power, which is something they have long been accused of doing by residents of the three Muslim-majority provinces, and slammed his critics, accusing them of picking and choosing certain stipulations in the decree and exaggerating their consequences.

“They read only one or two points and started shouting about it being too powerful,” Thaksin said.

Khomsan Phokong, a law professor at Sukhothai Thammathirat University, accused the prime minister of misleading the public by presenting only one side of the issue and not talking about the consequences.

Khomsan said a network of law professors examining the decree was forming across the country.