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PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia: Thailand and Cambodia have built up forces at more points along their common border, stepping up a week-long standoff over disputed territory, Cambodian officials said Wednesday.
More than 500 Thai troops are facing off against at least 1,000 Cambodian soldiers over a tiny area of land near the ancient Preah Vihear temple, but thousands more Thai troops have been positioned along the border, they said.
"There are about 1,000 Thai troops in their territory - there's a military build-up there," said Cambodian cabinet spokesman Phay Siphan, who estimated about 4,000 Thai troops in total have gathered across the entire border.
But Thailand denied it was reinforcing the frontier.
"Thailand has not been building up forces along the border," deputy army spokeswoman Colonel Sirichan Ngathong told AFP.
"We maintain the same amount of soldiers, and more than 400 soldiers were sent to the overlapping area."
Cambodian officials said both sides had sent more troops and heavy weapons to a spot near the former Khmer Rouge stronghold Anlong Veng, where there is also disputed territory.
"There are more (Thai) troops now at Anlong Veng than there are here (at Preah Vihear). There are tanks and artillery," said a military official on condition of anonymity.
Cambodia has also sent heavy weapons to the area, said the Cambodian colonel, who has close ties to Thai armed forces
In neighbouring Banteay Meanchay province, police chief Hun Hean said Thailand had increased its troop presence directly across the border by up to 600 since the standoff began July 15.
Meanwhile, Thailand's premier on Wednesday accused his Cambodian counterpart of using an escalating border dispute as a vote-winner, and said talks should resume after weekend general elections there.
Samak Sundaravej said Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was capitalising on nationalist sentiment ahead of Sunday's polls, which are widely expected to return the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) to power.
"Let them play - they merely want a result for the election on the 27th," he told reporters. "He (Hun Sen) just wants to win elections."
Samak said the military standoff over a tiny disputed patch of land near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple will be "less intense" after the polls.
"They (the Cambodians) will find it easier to talk ... After the elections, I will talk," he said.
The recent tensions between the neighbours began when the United Nations earlier this month granted Cambodia's request to have the Preah Vihear ruins listed as a World Heritage Site.
Hun Sen has portrayed the recognition of the ruins as a national triumph, organising huge public celebrations, but nationalists in Thailand - some of whom still claim Preah Vihear as their own - were outraged.
Troops were sent to the region last week after Cambodia arrested three Thai protesters who tried to illegally enter the temple, which the World Court said in 1962 legally belonged to Cambodia.
Although Thailand says it wants to solve the dispute through bilateral talks, Thailand's UN ambassador said the issue would be raised at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Thursday at Cambodia's request.
- AFP/yb
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