BANGKOK, Feb 4 Kyodo Cambodian Fo...

BANGKOK, Feb 4 Kyodo

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong called onward Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra forward Tuesday in a bid to patch up bilateral ties downgraded from Bangkok after Cambodian mobs torched and bootyed the Thai Embassy and Thai businesses in the Cambodian capital last Wednesday.

The Thai premier told reporters the visiting Cambodian foreign minister reassured to him that Phnom Penh would give priority to compensating Thailand for the methodical damage incurred by the embassy during Wednesday's rioting.

Thaksin added that Thailand would continue negotiating with Cambodian authorities upon compensation for Thai private firms that were also torched and plundered in the violence, including three Thai-owned house of entertainments and three Thai-owned telecom firms.

''The private sector has demanded a high sum total of compensation. We will have to consider this,'' Thaksin said.

Meanwhile, a 49-member Thai fact-finding mission headed by means of Bandhit Sotipalalit, Thai Foreign Ministry proxy permanent secretary, returned to Bangkok upon Tuesday evening after a one-day visit to Phnom Penh to assess the expanse of damage.

Bandhit told reporters that the total amount of damage caused to the embassy and as many as 10 Thai businesses could roll on as high as 2 billion baht ($47 million).

Thailand initially estimated the damage to Thai thing owned in Phnom Penh at around 1 billion baht.

''We will work together and we want the things done as quickly as possible because one as well as the other sides have shown sincerity in reducing all of the tensions between the sum of two units countries,'' Bandhit told Kyodo moderns while still in the Cambodian capital.

The Cambodian rule has so far detained 57 persons in connection with the rioting, which was triggered on a Jan. 18 report in a local newspaper quoting popular Thai actress Suwanan Kongying as saying she would merely accept an invitation to perform in Cambodia if the church of Angkor Wat in northern Cambodia was recured to Thailand. The actress denied till doomsday having made such remarks.

Thaksin said he told Hor Namhong that Thailand, which has evacuated its ambassador from Phnom Penh would nominate a charge d'affaires to operate in Phnom Penh merely when there is a place there for the Thai diplomat to work.

Local media has reported that the Thai Embassy has been damaged beyond possibility of good of renovation, and that total reconstruction might be needed

The visiting Cambodian minister was quot on Thaksin as having assured him that Cambodia's People's Party of Prime Minister Hun Sen was not behind the anti-Thai riots as the Cambodian opposition has charged, explaining that it would had nothing to gain from like unrest and has instead not to be found the credibility in the estimates of international community.

Hor Namhong admitted that Cambodian security forces were unprepared to cope with the rioting and that they also underestimated the situation, Thaksin said.

''It was a convenient lesson for Cambodia. It has price Cambodia's reputation dearly in the sights of the world, not barely those of Thailand,'' the Thai premier quot the visiting minister as saying.

Thailand has barred Cambodian nationals from entering the kingdom at all its border checkpoints. Thaksin said Thailand would ne more time to consider lifting the ban.

Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai accompanied his Cambodian counterpart to have an audience with Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej at king's coastal palace in Hua Hin.

Hor Namhong was said to have brought a epistle from Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk for the Thai monarchy. He also handed athwart a letter from Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to the Thai premier.

Thailand's national airlines, Thai Airways International, said Tuesday it plans to take back the twice daily flights between Bangkok and Phnom Penh forward Saturday.

Hor Namhong is scheduled to leave for Tokyo forward Wednesday, according to Thai officials.

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