The Thai cabinet extended the state of emergency for another three months in the troubled south at a weekly meeting on January 19.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the emergency state was to renew until April 19 due to unabated violence in the south, mostly in Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani provinces and four districts in Song-kla province.

On January 19, a street side bomb blew up as a military truck passed by, wounding four soldiers.

A series of attacks in Pattani and Yala provinces on January 13 and 14 killed four people and injured 17 others.

Over 4,100 people died in attacks launched by separatists in southern Thailand since January, 2004.

Prime Minister Abhisit also pushed for the issuance of an amnesty for Islamist militants in the south at a national Security Council meeting next month in an effort to reduce violence./.