Permanent Representative to the UN, New York SEA Kosal of Cambodia

fierce rebuke from Prime Minister Hun Sen.

But in a Khmer-language letter dated December 18 to Ban, a copy of which obtained by AFP Thursday, Cambodia's ambassador to the UN, Sea Kosal said the kingdom was "very disappointed about the rude attitude" of Ghai.

In his letter Friday to the Security Council, Cambodian UN Ambassador Sea Kosal said the action by Thai troops was aimed at creating "a de facto overlapping area that legally does not exist on Cambodian soil.

In a letter, Ambassador Sea Kosal said Cambodia was ''very.

In a letter, Ambassador Sea Kosal said Cambodia was "very disappointed about the rude attitude" of rapporteur Yash Ghai, whose criticism this month of land rights violations prompted a fierce rebuke from Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Kosal was also lecturer in international law at the Faculty of Law and Economics and the Royal School of Administration, both in Phnom Penh.

Ambassador Sea Kosal said the action by Thai troops was aimed at creating a de facto overlapping area that legally does not exist on Cambodian soil.