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PHNOM PENH: More than 200 Thai troops have assembled on the Cambodian border amid escalating tensions over an ancient temple at the centre of a territorial dispute, a Cambodian official said Wednesday.
The soldiers began crossing the border on Tuesday, he said, after three Thai protesters were arrested for jumping an immigration checkpoint to reach the Preah Vihear temple.
Thailand denies the trespass and insists the soldiers are patrolling on its side of the border. Cambodia also has hundreds of troops in the area.
"More than 200 Thai troops have arrived," Hang Soth, head of the government agency running Preah Vihear temple, told AFP by telephone.
"They have refused to go back. The confrontations could be serious," he said, adding that officials are discussing ways to end the stand-off.
Thai authorities on the border made a complete denial.
"It's totally untrue. There is no trespassing," said Seni Chittakasem, governor of the province that borders the temple.
"We have deployed rangers to patrol the border and some civilian volunteers," he told AFP.
"But we have withdrawn soldiers from the disputed area and are monitoring from a distance," he added.
Late Tuesday officials on both sides played down the incident as a misunderstanding.
Cambodian officials claimed that they were holding the Thai troops at a pagoda on the slope of the mountain leading to the temple, saying they would be released if they signed a document admitting to crossing the border.
One Thai soldier was injured by a landmine.
Cambodia says Thailand has sent even more troops into the country, claiming they refuse to end the incursion. Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said that after sending reinforcements Cambodia now had 380 troops in the area.
The World Court ruled in 1962 that the temple belongs to Cambodia. But the most accessible entrance to the Khmer ruins lies in Thailand and 4.6 square kilometres of the surrounding land remains in dispute.
- AFP/yb
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