United States and Israeli intelligence units have warned of possible attacks, even suicide bombings, in the South within the next month.

A source within a Thai intelligence agency said US and Israeli spies have been watching Muslim instigators in the three southern border provinces and had warned Thai authorities to prepare for violence.

The intelligence units did not say where or how the violence would take place, but warned there were possibilities of massive bomb attacks or suicide bombings by both male and female assailants, the source said.

The source declined to say whether officers of the US Central Intelligence Agency or Israel's Mossad were now in the South, saying only that both agencies had for months been following up on Muslim agitators there.

``The US and Israeli intelligence agencies are paying attention to violent Muslim movements in southern Thailand and checking if they have connections with al-Qaeda and JI [Jemaah Islamiyah] terrorist groups,'' the source said.

The source said Thai authorities still could not say if there were links between southern instigators and regional or international terrorist movements, citing no clear evidence.

Meanwhile, an informed army source in the South said local people had reported that young men and teenagers from several villages of Songkhla's Thepha and Saba Yoi districts had gone into the forest for firearms training, but no trace of such activities had been found.

Many young men from Sukhirin and Waeng districts of Narathiwat were missing from villages, but some villagers claimed the men had crossed the Malaysian border for work, the army source added.

The source also said a battalion attached to the Chon Buri-based 21st Infantry Regiment Royal Guard, better known as the Queen's musketeers, remained in Narathiwat to protect Thaksin Ratchaniwes Palace and carry out psychological work after Her Majesty the Queen's two-month visit to the South.

Earlier, Defence Minister Gen Thammarak Isarangkura na Ayudhaya told cabinet that Muslim instigators planned to seize Thaksin Ratchaniwes Palace by January and declare an independent state. His report has been strongly criticised.