The interior minister announced that cable TV would be installed in teashops across the south.

The hope is that it will distract young Muslim men from joining the insurgency.

The conflict with government forces has claimed more than 800 lives in the past 18 months.

The Thai government is at a loss over what to do with its troubled southern provinces.

It has tried appealing for peace, at one point dropping thousands of folded paper birds over the area.

It has tried being tough - nearly 200 Muslim men died at the hands of the army last year.

Last month it imposed emergency rule there.

Regular bloodshed

None of these approaches has worked. Policemen, government officials and teachers are still being killed on an almost daily basis by insurgents whose identity remains a mystery.

Now the interior minister thinks the lure of English Premier League football might do the trick.

He wants to install 500 cable television sets in the teashops frequented by young Muslim men, in the hope that watching sport will prove more attractive than joining the militants.

He may be misjudging the mood of mistrust in the south though.

One prominent community leader there said the move would more likely be viewed as an attempt to project government propaganda.

The close association in Thailand between televised football and illegal gambling, he said, makes this an especially insensitive form of entertainment to promote in Muslim areas.