Peace talks between the government and southern separatists ended on Friday with no breakthrough but an agreement to meet again, and with the insurgents denying responsibility for a string of bombings last month.
Mara Patani, an insurgent umbrella group involved in the negotiations, said both sides had agreed to more dialogue.
Speaking at a news conference in Kuala Lumpur where the talks took place, the group said it would consider the creation of "safety zones" proposed by the government to show good faith.
Gen Aksara Kerdphol, the government's lead negotiator, told Reuters that Mara Patani had denied playing a role in recent violence, including a string of bombings that targeted several tourist towns on Aug 12.
"The other party told us they were not responsible for the violence and that they would cooperate with the government in building a peaceful situation," Gen Aksara said.
The string of bombings killed four people and wounded 37, including a dozen foreigners. Police have linked the incidents to southern insurgents, some of whom have been known to have taken part in earlier attacks.
Analysts say the main group believed to be behind the bombings, Barisan Revolusi Nasional, launched the attacks after having been left out of the latest peace talks.
Friday's meeting took place as authorities defused a large and potentially deadly car bomb in Narathiwat early on Friday.
"An explosive ordnance disposal team defused a device, an 80-kilogramme gas cylinder, inside a stolen milk truck," said Col Yutthanam Petchmuang, a deputy spokesman for the army's Internal Security Operations Command.
Col Yutthanam declined to comment on whether the attempted attack was aimed at coinciding with the talks and said an investigation was continuing.
The decades-old insurgency in the Muslim-majority southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat has claimed more than 6,500 lives since it escalated in 2004, according to the independent monitoring group Deep South Watch.
Talks between the government and the insurgents began in 2013 under former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra but stalled after the military overthrew her government in 2014.
