BANGKOK: A Thai politician said in a television broadcast Thursday that he had brokered a ceasefire with a militant group in the restive south of the country.

General Chetha Thanacharosaid he had met with a group called Ruam Pak Tai Khong Prathet Thai (Thailand's United Southern Underground group) and agreed an end to their violence.

The general, leader of the Ruam Chai Thai Chart Pattana party, a minor member of the governing six-party coalition, said he would take full responsibility if violence resumed.

"They must prove their intention to cease their activities for the sake of sustainable peace in the south," the general said in the Channel 5 broadcast.

"Everything is not 100 per cent certain," he said.

An announcement by the leader of the group would be broadcast at noon (0500 GMT) in the local Yawi dialect, a Channel 5 official said.

The general said the group was party to the separatist conflict in the southern provinces bordering Malaysia, which has claimed 3,300 lives in the past four years.

The region was an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until Thailand annexed it in 1902, provoking decades of tension.

Authorities have made little progress in identifying the militants, who rarely claim responsibility for attacks.

Sunei Phasuk of Human Rights Watch and an expert on the conflict said he had not heard of the group named by the general, adding the conflict was led by another group, BRN Coordinate.

"General Chetha may be playing a game," Sunei said. "If he could bring BRN Coordinate to reveal themselves to the public, that would make a great impact."

A military official told AFP on condition of anonymity he was suspicious of the politician's motive.

"This is likely to be a joke," he said. "General Chetha may be doing this for his own political benefit. Besides, the group's name sounds unfamiliar."

- AFP/yb