Brig. Gen. Charles Holland, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, inspected about 260 American soldiers deployed at military bases in Zamboanga City on arrival as the first batch of U.S. Special Forces prepared to be deployed to the southern Philippine island of Basilan on Sunday, moving the Southeast Asian phase of the U.S. campaign on terrorism up a gear.

U.S. special forces will begin deploying over the weekend to an island in the southern Philippines, where they will train Filipino soldiers fighting an extremist group holding two American hostages.

More than 400 U.S. soldiers, mostly support staff, already have arrived for the six-month exercise, but the deployment of 32 special forces members on Sunday to one of the Abu Sayyaf group's island bases marks the start of the risky part of the U.S. mission.

The bulk of the 160 special forces members are to arrive on Monday and deploy to Basilan island in batches later. With 500 support staff, the planned U.S. military deployment is the second-biggest after Afghanistan in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

Holland, in camouflage uniform, arrived on board an MC-130 cargo plane from Guam. He met Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Diomedio Villanueva and Southern Command head Lt Gen. Roy Cimatu behind closed doors, at the Edwin Andrews Air Base in Sta. Maria village, said Philippine Air Force Col Fredesvindo Covarrubias, supervisor of the war-games media bureau.

More than 400 U.S. troops will arrive in Zamboanga City on Monday, representing the largest part of the 660 American soldiers assigned to a joint U.S.-Philippine anti-terror training in Zamboanga City and Basilan, in southern Philippines, and in Cebu, central Philippines, said Cimatu.

"General Holland is here to visit American troops deployed inside the Philippine Air Force base and Southern Command because most of the soldiers participating in the wargames are under his command," Covarrubias said.

It is the largest deployment of American forces abroad since the ongoing U.S.-led campaign against terrorists in Afghanistan, acknowledged U.S. Charge d'affaires Robert Fitts in Manila. A 220-man American team arrived in Mactan, Cebu. They were based at the Mactan Benito Ebuen Airbase in Lapu-Lapu, the military said.

The Philippines has mobilised 1,200 soldiers for the six-month long joint wargames meant to strengthen the Philippine armed forces with hi-tech equipment.

The entry of American soldiers in Basilan has been criticised as a form of foreign intervention in handling the hostage-taking crisis brought about by the Abu Sayyaf that still holds U.S. Christian missionary couple, Martin and Gracia Burnham, and Filipino nurse, Deborah Yap. Although placed under a Philippine commander, American soldiers could fire back if attacked.

Meanwhile, militant groups held an anti-U.S. rally in Basilan, about 15 nautical miles south of Zamboanga City.

Dozens of protesters, mostly Muslim students, were shouting anti-American slogan. Many carried placards, as they marched through the streets in the capital Isabela City, denouncing the presence of U.S. troops in Zamboanga City and Basilan.

They urged the government to hold the wargames elsewhere. A women's group, called Kaisa Ka (You're With Us), staged another anti-U.S. rallies in front of Manila's U.S. Embassy along Roxas Boulevard.

Kaisa Ka accused Arroyo of having allowed American soldiers in the country, "for the wrong reason", adding she has become "an accomplice in creating a smoke-screen to allow the American soldiers to help Filipino troopers attack the Abu Sayyaf".

The group also expressed fears that with the American soldiers here, prostitution might spread anew in the country. Most of the U.S. forces are stationed in the south.