BANGKOK - SUSPECTED separatist rebels have killed a Buddhist man and a Muslim man in Thailand's far south, which is in the grip of an insurgency, police said on Friday.

The 57-year-old Buddhist was killed in a drive-by shooting in Pattani province, police said, while a 55-year-old Muslim man, who police said was a government informant, was shot dead in nearby Yala province.

Both attacks happened on Thursday evening.

More than 3,000 people have been killed since separatist unrest broke out in January 2004 in the south, which was an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until mainly Buddhist Thailand annexed it in 1902, provoking decades of tension.

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said on Friday that the government would extend emergency rule in the Muslim-majority south for three more months.