Thai-Cambodia in military standoff

Thailand sent troops to the border after anti-government demonstrators attacked Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's government for supporting Cambodia's request to designate the temple. And Cambodia responded with its own deployment.

The Thai protesters claim the temple's new status will undermine their country's claim to 1.8 square miles around the temple.

"It is a deadlock at this point and that means the relationship between the two countries will go from bad to worse," Surachart Bamrungsuk, a security analyst at Chulalongkorn University's faculty of Political Science, said Monday about the failed talks.

Based on estimates by commanders and AP reporters on both sides of the border, more than 4,000 troops have been deployed around the temple and in the immediate vicinity since last Tuesday.

Still, the atmosphere appeared relaxed Tuesday, despite the close proximity of the two forces at the site.

Soldiers from both sides mingled casually. Some were lying in hammocks, while others sat on rocks swinging their legs with their weapons on their laps or on the ground near them.

"Nothing has changed. We have received orders to continue maintaining patience" after the talks failed, Cambodian Brig. Gen. Chea Keo said Tuesday.

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Associated Press writers Ambika Ahuja and Sutin Wannnabovorn in Bangkok, Thailand, Ker Munthit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and writer Sumeth Panpetch along the Thai-Cambodian border contributed to this report.