Manila, Moro rebels resume peace talks

Kuala Lumpur: The Philippines resumed stalled peace talks with the country's largest Muslim rebel group Tuesday, with the government's top negotiator expressing optimism of achieving a lasting settlement.

The two-day talks in Kuala Lumpur between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), is also joined by a newly set up International Contact Group made up of Britain, Japan and Turkey.

The stop-start talks brokered by Malaysia since 2001 aim to end a four-decade Muslim insurgency that has killed 120,000 people and scared off potential investors in a region believed to be sitting on huge oil and gas deposits.

"I believe and I am sure that we all share this optimism that we will be able to forge a peace settlement that is just, lasting, acceptable, and truly beneficial to the Muslim Filipinos in Mindanao, and to the entire Filipino people," said Rafael Seguis, chairman of the Philippine Government peace negotiating panel in a statement yesterday.

An escalation in violence from August 2008 until July this year saw more than 1,000 people killed and nearly 750,000 people displaced.

Both sides agreed to a truce in July, opening the way for resumption of talks.

The Malaysian facilitator to the talks Othman Razak said in e-mailed comments that the imposition of martial law in Maguindanao where the MILF is based presented technical difficulties to the talks.

"But the peace talks resumed this morning after resolving the complications arising out of the imposition of martial law," said Othman.