PHNOM PENH - THAI soldiers pulled back from a disputed stretch of the Cambodian border on Tuesday, averting a possible military confrontation in the region of the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple, a Cambodian general on the scene said.

'They pulled out from our land', General Chea Mon told Reuters by phone from the border shortly before the expiry of a midday (0500 GMT, 1pm Singapore time) deadline set by Phnom Penh for the withdrawal of nearly 100 Thai soldiers from the jungle-clad area.

'The situation seems to have returned to normal', he said.

Before the withdrawal, both Phnom Penh and Bangkok had been banging the war drums, with Thai Foreign Minister Sompong Amornvivat saying his government would not heed the ultimatum from Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

'We are in our homeland. How can they expect us to leave our home?' he said in reply to a question from a reporter.

In a speech to an economic conference in Phnom Penh, Mr Hun Sen repeated the deadline for Thai forces to pull back, but did not say what consequences would follow.

On Monday, he said his forces would turn the area into a 'death zone'.

'We will not let the Thais stand on our land,' he said, adding that Cambodian soldiers, many of them battle-hardened Khmer Rouge veterans, were shouting at the Thai lines: 'If you want to die, come over here. Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat had said Bangkok would pull back its troops only as part of wider joint effort to agree on the various disputed parts of the border.

We have no problem with a troop withdrawal to avoid confrontation, but we need a joint committee to meet and agree on how far we are going to pull back and how many troops will be withdrawn,' he said before a weekly cabinet meeting.

Singapore called for both sides to show restraint.

'We urge both sides to contain emotions, exercise restraint and resolve the issue through negotiations without resorting to force,' the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Tensions have been high since July, when around 1,000 soldiers on both sides faced off only yards apart in trenches dug into a hillside that until 10 years ago was under the control of remnants of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot's guerrilla army.

At the heart of the dispute is 4.6 sq km of scrub near the temple, which the International Court of Justice awarded to Cambodia in 1962, a ruling that has rankled many in Thailand ever since.

The dispute flared in July after protesters trying to overthrow the Thai government attacked Bangkok's backing of Phnom Penh's bid to list the Hindu ruins as a World Heritage site. -- REUTERS