PUTRAJAYA, April 12: Malaysia and Thailand pledged on Monday to fight terror along their border to counter violent unrest in largely Muslim southern Thailand, as Bangkok released five captured Malaysian soldiers.

Relations between the southeast Asian neighbours have been strained since Thai officials said militants behind violence in southern Thailand had taken refuge over the border in Malaysia.

But Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, holding a joint news conference with his Thai counterpart, Thaksin Shinawatra, spoke only of unity. "We stand together in combating terrorists, criminals, drug peddlers and other groups that are causing instability and troubles to both countries," Abdullah said.

He told a second news conference after Thaksin had finished his lightning trip that Bangkok had released five Malaysian soldiers detained in southern Thailand at the end of last week after they strayed into Thai territory.

Abdullah said joint border patrols set up after violence flared in southern Thailand ensured no one could cross over. "I don't want any criminals to think that running away from Thailand into Malaysia will be safe. Malaysia is not a safe haven for criminals," he said.

Monday's edition of Malaysia's New Straits Times daily quoted a senior Thai army officer as saying the five soldiers were part of a "special force" not listed as active in the area.

A wave of violence in southern Thailand has killed 60 people since January. The attacks have raised fears of a full-scale separatist rebellion in the region where most of predominantly Buddhist Thailand's Muslims live, and where a low-key separatist insurgency simmered in the 1970s and 1980s.

Some officials have suggested the violence may have links to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. Late on Monday, just a few hours after the summit, two Thai villagers and a policeman were killed in two incidents in Yala province near the Malaysian border. Investigators immediately blamed Muslim separatists for the attacks.

Many southern Thai Muslims speak a Malay dialect, hold dual citizenship and have strong religious and cultural ties with their Malaysian neighbours. Thai officials have said a recent motorcycle bomb that wounded nearly 30 people outside a karaoke bar in a Thai border town was the work of dual-nationality Thais who fled to Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur said it had looked for the militants on the basis of Thai intelligence but had found no suspects. -Reuters