Cambodia: Thai troops still in country

Thai officials have denied any incursion, saying the troops are deploying on Thai territory to protect their country's sovereignty.

"Their troops have increased in number. They have not pulled back yet," said Hang Soth, director-general of the national authority for the Preah Vihear temple. Both sides were due to resume negotiations Wednesday morning, he said, but did not elaborate.

Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said Tuesday night that 170 troops and Thai civilians had crossed into Cambodian territory. He could not say how many civilians were among the group.

The number of Thai troops swelled to about 200 on Wednesday, Cambodian border guard unit commander Seng Vuthy said by telephone from Preah Vihear.

"Both the Cambodian and Thai forces have their hands on their guns at all times," Seng Vuthy said.

The latest confrontation came after UNESCO declared Preah Vihear--which is at the center of a long-standing border quarrel between the neighbors--a World Heritage site last week.

Both countries claim land around the temple, and Thai anti-government activists have revived nationalist sentiment over the issue. The activists and some government officials fear the temple's new status will jeopardize their country's claims to land adjacent to the site.

The incident has claimed at least one casualty. A land mine explosion sheared the right leg off a Thai soldier patrolling in the area, said Thai army Col. Sirichan Ngathong.

Stretches of the Thai-Cambodian border are still strewn with land mines sown by various sides during the 1970-75 Cambodian civil war and the guerrilla conflict that followed the fall of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in 1979.