Thailand and Cambodia agree to ceasefire

THAILAND and Cambodia have agreed to a ceasefire after a week of clashes that killed at least 15 people, wounded scores and sent more than 60,000 into evacuation shelters in Southeast Asia's deadliest border dispute in years.

The agreement caps seven days of sporadic artillery and small-rocket fire that fanned nationalist passions in both countries.

Cambodia's Defence Ministry said both sides agreed to keep troops in the area, hold regular meetings between field commanders and to leave their territorial disputes to a Thai-Cambodian Joint Commission on Demarcation for Land Boundary set up a decade ago.

They also agreed to open border checkpoints near two disputed 12th-century Hindu temples at the heart of the fighting.

But the agreement looks fragile and both sides remain at odds over numerous issues.