Skirmishes over a U.N. World Heritage Site along the Thai-Cambodian border have displaced at least 36,000 people, authorities say.

Both sides are blaming the other for the latest round of border skirmishes. At least 10 soldiers were killed and dozens more were wounded last week in fighting near an 11th-century temple.

The conflict is centered on the Preah Vihear temple, listed as a World Heritage Site in 2008. The international courts in 1962 ruled the temple was on the Cambodian side of the border though parts of the 2-square-mile site passes through Thailand.

Cambodian officials said as many as 10,000 people were forced to relocate to temporary shelters and Thai authorities claim 26,000 on their side were evacuated from border communities, the United Nations' humanitarian news agency IRIN reports.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva during a weekly address appealed to the international community for help. He said the conflict has escalated to the point that "the dispute can no longer be solved at the bilateral level," IRIN quoted him as saying.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week called on both sides to show restraint. Both sides, he said in a statement issued through his spokesman, should "take immediate measures to put in place an effective and verifiable cease-fire.