Neutral pion production in central 158A GeV [sup 208]Pb+ [sup 208] Pb collisions has been studied in the WA98 experiment at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. The [pi][sup 0] transverse mass spectrum has been analyzed in terms of a thermal model with hydrodynamic expansion. The high accuracy and large kinematic coverage of the measurement allow one to limit previously noted ambiguities in the extracted freeze-out parameters. The results are shown to be sensitive to the shape of the velocity distribution at freeze-out. [copyright] [ital 1999] [ital The American Physical Society ]