A ceremony has been held in Cambodia to mark the reintegration of the Khmer Rouge military headquarters at Anlong Veng into government control.

During the ceremony -- attended by the co-defence minister, Tea Banh -- about four-thousand Khmer Rouge soldiers pledged their allegiance to the government army.

Anlong Veng, which has been a rebel stronghold for almost two decades, fell to government forces in April following a series of mass defections by Khmer Rouge supporters.

A BBC correspondent in Phnom Penh says its return to government hands is important symbolically.

She says with elections less than two months away, the authorities can claim Cambodia is more stable now than it has been for some time.