U.S. considering more military aid to Manila

The United States would consider giving more military aid to the Philippines to deny the Al Qaida extremist network a new Southeast Asian base, Washington's military chief said yesterday.

But General Richard Myers, stressed in Manila, "there is absolutely no intention" by Washington to set up new military bases in the Philippines after vacating two major facilities in the country in 1992.

There are also no immediate plans to deploy counter-terrorist U.S. forces elsewhere in the region "at the current time," the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Myers is visiting the Philippines to check on the progress of U.S. military assistance against the Abu Sayyaf, tipped to be allies of Al Qaida.

"We...know that the Al Qaida is looking for other places to train and plan operations. They can't do that inside Afghanistan any more, they've been disrupted there.

"So to be effective they have to have a training location and they have to have a place where they can plan and gather," he said.

"We have to be very cautious and very vigilant on where that might be. It could be here as well as in other places in the Middle East," Myers said.

Myers met late Friday with Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, who has publicly called for more counter-terrorist joint military training outside Basilan. He also met top defence and military officials here yesterday.

He is scheduled to fly to Basilan, southern Philippines today to visit some 160 U.S. soldiers assisting Filipino troops to rescue two American hostages of the Abu Sayyaf group from the island's forested areas.

Myers said his country has no definite plan for the deployment of counter-terrorist U.S. forces in Mindanao "at the current time."

Washington has "absolutely no intention" to set up new military bases in Basilan, he added.

"The U.S. government would be very receptive to requests from the Philippine government for future training assistance and advisory roles for the U.S. armed forces if that's what the Philippine government wants," Myers added.

But he denied reports that the two governments are considering allowing U.S. forces to join Filipino troops in combat patrols on Basilan.

"Myers' commitment in modernising the (Filipino armed forces) is a formality since at the lower level, our group and our counterparts have been talking about American assistance," Filipino military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jose Mabanta said.

National Security Council head Roilo Golez said the U.S. official also denied the recent report of Texas-based think tank, the Strategic Forecasting Inc. (Stratfor), which said the U.S. sent soldiers to reconstruct roads and air strips in the Basilan Island because it was setting a regional operation facility for counter-terrorism.

The Stratfor study, said on its website that the U.S. "has an eye to target Indonesia" with the establishment of a forward base.

The U.S. abandoned former Clark Air Base in Angeles, Pampanga after it was destroyed by the Pinatubo eruption in 1991.

The Philippine senate rejected the U.S. proposed 10-year extension of the defunct Military Bases Agreement (MBA) which ended U.S. presence in the former U.S. Subic Naval Base in 1992. The military meanwhile expressed its thanks to the U.S. for its show of concern and concrete assistance.

"Myers' commitment in modernising the (Filipino armed forces) is a formality since at the lower level, our group and our counterparts have been talking about American assistance," Filipino military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jose Mabanta said, adding: "This is his first stop in his Asian tour, and this shows how much the Philippines is regarded by the U.S.," said Mabanta.