100 rebels among 148 killed in week of fighting

Manila: At least 48 soldiers and civilians and scores of rebels have been killed in the southern Philippines in a week of fighting triggered by the collapse of a peace deal, the government said on Saturday.

About 200,000 people have fled their homes to escape the violence, according to Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro.

At least 44 people, most of them civilians, were killed when renegades from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) attacked coastal towns in the volatile south on Monday, days after a territorial agreement between the government and the rebels was halted by the Supreme Court.

Teodoro said at least four soldiers and an unknown number of the guerrillas have been killed in military operations against the renegades since then. Over 50 soldiers have been injured, he said.

Some military sources have said up to 100 rebels may have died.

The government has blamed two MILF commanders for the violence - the worst in years in the Mindanao region of the Christian-majority nation - and said they cannot be controlled by the main leaders.

The government has said the territorial agreement will have to be re-negotiated, which the MILF has said is not possible.

"I'm in favour of another agreement, whatever it takes to stop the conflict, but you know it just cannot have as a tradeoff the criminals going scott free," Teodoro said.

"They [the MILF] must show good faith to try to stop the conflict from escalating and that good faith is to surrender the two who perpetrated these atrocities and stop condoning it at least, if not encouraging."

Handover not an option

The MILF has said handing over the two commanders to the military is out of the question.

Teodoro said military operations were currently focused on the 4,000 or so fighters controlled by the two renegade commanders but warned that fighting could spread.

"We are pragmatic enough to realise that we don't know who is sincere and who is not and so we shall give them that option through dialogue. However if they refuse to heed that call and seek another path we shall be ready to take appropriate action.

"I think it is prudent for us to assume the worst but hope for the best."

The Philippine government and the 11,000-member MILF have been in on-off talks for more than a decade on how to give Muslims more self-rule in the south.

At least 120,000 people have been killed in 40 years of conflict on Mindanao.