Thailand to extend emergency rule in restive south: PM

His remarks came as a former prime minister urged the government to apologise for its role in the southern unrest as a way of resolving it.

Thaksin spoke to reporters after meeting top security officials including the army's new chief, who was on Saturday quoted as saying the army would try a divide-and-rule strategy to win an "ideological battle" to end the violence.

Emergency rule, covering Muslim-majority Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala provinces, which came into effect in July and expires on October 20 can be renewed every three months with cabinet approval.

"We will extend emergency rule for sure as the unrest has not subsided," Thaksin said of the decree whose measures include allowing detention without charge for up to 30 days and gives officials immunity from prosecution.

"We will not invoke any extra measures, only work more effectively and I personally will frequently visit the area and stay overnight there."

Thaksin said the government's methods against 21 months of unrest which has claimed more than 960 lives were having an effect.

"As of Monday you will see new methods which are more efficient and stringent," he said.

"I can reassure you that everything will improve. Daily shootings will not stop overnight but they will be eased."

Former prime minister Anand Panyarachun, who now heads a government-created body set up to suggest ways to end the violence, was quoted as saying the government had never made "any expression of regret" about its role.

"The word 'sorry' is something people in the region would like to hear most," the Nation newspaper quoted the head of the National Reconciliation Commission as saying.