Southern command vice-chief of staff, Brig. Gen. Rodolfo Diaz, told visiting American Congressman Jim Gibbons that the U.S. should curb the entry of Afghan fighters and weapons into the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean), a Filipino congressman said in a press briefing.

"There should be stricter controls of arms in Afghanistan going out," Philippine Congressman Celso Lobregat quoted Diaz as saying, adding that Gibbons promised to take up the issue with the U.S. government.

"There might be a proliferation of these arms to other countries, including the Philippines," Lobregat noted to explain Diaz's apprehension.

He added that many Philippine officials are afraid that Taliban fighters on the run might try to sneak into Mindanao, southern Philippines.

Many believe that some of the weapons of the Al Qaida network of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden have found their way to the South-East Asian archipelago, which could exacerbate a growing Muslim separatist insurgency problem in the area.

Regional terror cells were pinpointed in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Gibbons, a Republican representing Nevada state and chairman of the U.S. House of Representative's sub-committee on analysis and counter-intelligence, arrived here as hundreds of U.S. forces are being deployed in Zamboanga City, southern Philippines, for a six-month training period.

The Abu Sayyaf group has links to the Al Qaida terror network, Philippine and U.S. officials have claimed.

Fathur Rohamn Al Ghozi, an Indonesian national and self-confessed member of the Jemaah Islamiyah, was arrested in Manila's Quiapo on January 15. This led to the arrest on January 17 of three Muslim brothers who were in custody of one ton of explosives in General Santos, central Mindanao.

Gibbons met Brig. Gen. Diaz, and Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Teodosio, co-training director for the U.S.-Philippine war games, and the Philippine air force's Col. Fredesvindo Covarrubias.

After the meeting, Gibbon was led to a waiting van and proceeded for lunch with Philippine military officials. Soldiers barred reporters from covering the meeting inside the camp.