Phnom Penh - The resolution of an ongoing corruption scandal at a joint Cambodian-UN court set up to try former Khmer Rouge leaders was the only barrier to direct US funding of the court, the outgoing US ambassador said at a press conference Monday.

Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli, ending a three-year mission in Cambodia, told reporters at the US embassy that he was convinced the tribunal was on the right track.

"The Khmer Rouge tribunal is making slow progress but it is going in the right direction," he said.

"We want to support and fund the Khmer Rouge tribunal directly, but we cannot until we are convinced it is a real tribunal ... and will give Cambodian people a real chance at justice."

Phnom Penh - Although talks with Thailand over disputed border territory achieved modest progress, the border crossing at the ancient Preah Vihear temple would remain closed indefinitely, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Wednesday.

Cambodia remained firm in its stance that Thailand had sent troops into Cambodian territory, he told a press conference at Phnom Penh International Airport upon his return from Thailand after talks there Tuesday.

Phnom Penh - The Cambodian government official in charge of the Khmer Rouge tribunal pledged to resign if any allegations of corruption prove true, a court spokesman said Tuesday.

"Sean Visoth has pledged he will resign if any evidence of corruption is found, from today," court spokesman Reach Sambath said.

Visoth is the director of administration for the tribunal.

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's mushrooming media outlets and a crisis of advertising revenue has claimed the English-language Mekong Times daily, the paper's editor said Tuesday.

Editor-in-chief Neth Pheaktra said by telephone that a lack of funds had forced the closure of the hard copy edition but that the paper, which also published in Khmer, was still considering options.

"We are not sure (about an internet edition) yet - we are not sure what we will do," he said.

Cha-am, Thailand - The foreign ministers of Thailand and Cambodia began bilateral talks Tuesday on how to defuse tensions over a border temple dispute that sparked a military standoff between the two countries last month.

Thai Foreign Minister Tej Bunnag and his Cambodian counterpart, Hor Namhong, met in the Thai beach resort of Cha-am, 110 kilometres south-west of Bangkok, to discuss long-term solutions to the dispute over the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, which has been a flash point for relations between Thailand and Cambodia since the late 1950s.