The separatist insurgency in Thailand's Muslim-majority south intensified last month, taking the number of people killed since January 2004 past 2,300, a researcher in the region said on Wednesday.

Srisompob Jitpiromsri of the Prince of Songkhla University said 103 people were killed in May, making it one of the bloodiest months in the region, an independent sultanate until annexed by overwhelmingly Buddhist Thailand a century ago.

The toll reflected increasing attacks on security forces and civilians as insurgent numbers and support for them rose in the southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, abutting the Malaysian border.

At the same time, the largely Buddhist government in faraway Bangkok was still struggling to produce coherent policies and combat tactics, he said.

"The insurgents have been expanding in the past two years while the national reconciliation policy can't stop the attacks," he said.

Since taking office in October, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont has fought off pressure from the Buddhist majority to take stronger action against the insurgents, saying he remains committed to a peaceful resolution.

He has apologized for the harsh policies of his predecessor, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup last September, and promised restraint in dealing with the violence.

But he has had no more success than Thaksin in dampening the insurgency in a region where most people speak a Malay dialect.

The daily killings and bombings by secretive militants who never claim responsibility have increased steadily despite the presence of 30,000 troops and police.

Srisompob, who said he had managed to contact militant leaders through third parties, said some appeared to want to take the death toll into the tens of thousands in order to force Bangkok into talks on independence.

"One or two thousand deaths is just the beginning. Once you have more than 20,000 people dead, you have more bargaining power for independence," he said. "They want independence. They will not compromise on this goal."

Insurgents also attack infrastructure, including railways, power sub-stations, schools, banks and mobile phone towers.

On Monday, they derailed a train by sabotaging tracks, shutting down rail services south of Hat Yai, the commercial centre of the south.

The state railway expects to resume train services in the far south today after fixing the damage.

Only in two other months has the death toll been higher than May's 103, and those were due mainly to single events. In April 2004, security forces killed at least 108 militants in one day after insurgents launched attacks on security outposts and a main mosque, pushing the monthly death toll to 151.

In October that year, when 139 people were killed, 78 Muslim protesters died of suffocation in overcrowded army trucks after they were detained.

(China Daily via agencies June 7, 2007)