Suspected Muslim insurgents exploded at least 46 bombs in attacks yesterday on government offices and other targets across Thailand's restive south, killing at least two people, as the deputy prime minister visited the region, officials said.

Two people were killed by the blasts in three provinces, and another 24 wounded, said police spokesman Colonel Pattanawut Angkanawin.

The bombings in the three southern Muslim-majority provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, most of which took place as people headed to work between 8:30 am and 9 am (0130 GMT and 0200 GMT), represented the most extensively co-ordinated attacks in many months by the suspected Islamic separatists, whose activity surged in January 2004.

One of the bombs went off at a government office in Yala minutes before Deputy Prime Minister Chitchai Wannasathit was due for a visit in the area. Chitchai is in charge of overseeing security in Thailand's south.

More than 1,300 people have been killed in sectarian fighting in the past two-and-a-half years. Government efforts to contain the violence, mainly by pouring security forces into the area, have failed to make much headway.

The attacks came just two days after Thailand finished celebrating the 60th anniversary on the throne of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and was a sharp reminder of the problems down south after a period of relative calm.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said intelligence information had indicated the insurgents were planning a "major operation" for yesterday but that the government's security operation was "not good enough" to block the attacks.

Thai intelligence officials have said that June 15 was the date chosen by a 1997 meeting of insurgents to represent the "national day" of an independent Pattani sultanate. The area was annexed in the early 20th century, and a violent separatist movement has waxed and waned since then.

Source: China Daily