FOREIGN Minister Hor Namhong said Cambodia and Thailand had agreed to resolve their long-running border dispute by using a memorandum of understanding signed in 2000.

He was speaking after returning from the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) meeting in Thailand Sunday.

Hor Namhong said Prime Minister Hun Sen had met his Thai counterpart, Abhisit Vejjajiva, in a bilateral meeting on Friday, and they had agreed to use the memorandum signed between the two countries in 2000.

The agreement states that the Joint Border Commission should use maps drafted in 1904 and 1907 - ratified by Siam (as Thailand was then known) and France, Cambodia's former colonial power - to delineate the common border.

"I think if Thailand has a clear stance and is willing to use the 2000 MoU, there will be no further difficulties in the future," Hor Namhong told reporters at Phnom Penh International Airport. "We decided to resolve the [border] issue peacefully."

He added that the two premiers had also discussed overlapping seabed claims in the Gulf of Cambodia between the two countries and were resolved to negotiate this issue as soon as possible. The gulf is thought to contain sizeable reserves of oil and gas.

Soldiers clashed on the border late last year after Preah Vihear temple was listed as a Unesco World Heritage site in early July.

Cambodia's top border negotiator, Var Kimhong, is to discuss border demarcation and de-mining with his Thai counterpart in Siem Reap in mid-April.