Thailand wants to keep U.N. out of Cambodian row

BANGKOK (Reuters) - New Thai foreign minister Tej Bunnag said on Sunday he would try his best to resolve a heated dispute with Cambodia over a 900-year-old temple, urging his counterpart not to take the issue to the United Nations.

With troops and artillery building up on both sides of the border near the Preah Vihear ruins, Tej and Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong are due to meet on Monday to try to avert a military clash.

Cambodia, which was awarded sovereignty over the temple in a 1962 World Court ruling, is threatening to take the issue to the United Nations Security Council, although Thailand wants all talks with its smaller neighbour to remain strictly two-way.

"Attempts to bring the bilateral issue to broader frameworks at this stage could complicate the situation, and in turn, produce undesirable repercussions on the good relations and goodwill," Tej said in a statement.

At the heart of the latest row is 1.8 square miles (4.6 square km) of scrubland near the temple whose sovereignty has never been resolved.

There have been no major incidents so far, but fears of a military clash are real given the nationalist fervour whipped up on both sides over the ruins, which won listing as a World Heritage site this month at Cambodia's request.

In 2003, a Cambodian mob torched the Thai embassy and several Thai-owned businesses in Phnom Penh over misreported comments from a Thai soap opera star suggesting the famed Angkor Wat temples well inside Cambodia actually belonged to Thailand.

(Reporting by Ploy Chitsomboon; Editing by Ed Cropley)