Bangkok - Thailand agreed Wednesday to repatriate 5,400 ethnic Hmong living in a Thai refugee camp since 2004 to neighbouring Laos within the year, state media reports said.

Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya told a press conference in Luang Prabang, Laos' ancient capital, that Thailand would pay 1.5 million baht (42,860 dollars) to the Lao government to help finance buildings at a village outside the current capital of Vientiane to receive the repatriated Hmong, the Thai News Agency reported.

About 350 Hmong volunteered to be repatriated Thursday from the Ban Huay Nam Khao refugee camp in Phetchabun province, 250 kilometres north of Bangkok, officials said.

Past efforts to repatriate the Hmong, an ethnic minority group that formed the main anti-communist guerrilla force in the US military's "secret war" in Laos in the 1960s and '70s, have met with resistance and raised concerns of human rights abuses.

For those unwilling to participate in the repatriation programme voluntarily, the Thai Foreign Affairs Ministry plans to contact third countries - including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States - to consider accepting the Hmong for resettlement, Kasit said.

Earlier this month, the Thai military blocked food supplies to Ban Huay Nam Khao in an apparent effort to force the 5,400 "illegal immigrants" to return to Laos.

The Thai military reportedly cut off the food supplies to punish the Hmong camp inmates for refusing to be counted, which was seen by some Hmong as an initial step toward forced repatriation to Laos.

After Laos went communist in 1975, hundreds of thousands of Hmong fled Laos and were resettled in the United States. Thousands more have stayed in Thailand, but they are under increasing pressure to join repatriation programmes.

Ban Huay Nam Khao, supervised by the Thai military, has provided a home for Hmong refugees since 2004. Last month, the camp invited Lao officials to try to persuade the residents to return to Laos.

Camp residents claimed Thai authorities have been using new tactics to persuade the Hmong to return, such as making frequent arrests for minor offences, such as gambling.

Since November, about 200 Hmong have voluntarily returned to Laos from the camp each month, aid workers said. Thailand identifies the camp residents as "illegal migrants," refusing to acknowledge them as refugees despite their claims of political persecution in Laos. (dpa)