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KUALA LUMPUR : The Philippine government and Muslim rebels are on a "fast track" to striking a pact ending a decades-old rebellion by March or April, the Malaysian hosts of peace talks said on Wednesday.
The two sides have also agreed to send international monitors back to the southern Philippines, in a peace process revived after a 16-month impasse, Malaysian facilitator Othman Abdul Razak said.
"There are a lot of challenges ahead. It is not an easy task," he told a news conference after two-day talks in Kuala Lumpur. "We are trying to sign the compact by the first quarter of next year, March or April, so we are going on a fast track."
Philippine negotiators have said they hope to secure a peace deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and end a conflict that has claimed more than 150,000 lives, before President Gloria Arroyo steps down next year.
The MILF, the largest of the Philippines' Muslim rebel groups, has also said it is optimistic about reaching a settlement in the talks, which collapsed in August 2008, amid fighting and a mass exodus of residents.
In a joint statement, the two sides said they had agreed to re-establish an international task force "to monitor ceasefire, humanitarian, rehabilitation, development and civilian protection agreements".
They said the monitors would create "a secure environment for the negotiations," which broke down when the MILF launched deadly attacks across the southern island of Mindanao.
MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal told the press conference that the group "does not want war" but "will not accept an imposed or half-baked solution".
The 2008 violence broke out after the Philippine supreme court outlawed a proposed deal that would have given the MILF control over large areas of the south that were claimed by the rebel group as its "ancestral domain".
Over 700,000 people were displaced at the height of the fighting in the southern island of Mindanao and nearly 400 were killed.
International monitors were forced to pull out and more than 250,000 people remain in evacuation centres across Mindanao. A new ceasefire was signed in September, paving the way for the resumption of the talks.
Since then, Mindanao has been rocked by a massacre in Maguindanao province that left 57 people dead, and the imposition of martial law there as the government battles militiamen loyal to the powerful Ampatuan clan.
The government had earlier backed the clan as part of a strategy to contain the 12,000-strong MILF but in a sign of the changed mood has excluded MILF areas in Maguindanao from the new security measures.
Othman said that Malaysia would be a lead member of the new International Monitoring Team, and that it could be deployed in as little as a month.
"It depends on how soon the contingent will be ready. Once Cabinet gives approval... we will move very quickly," he said.
He said he expected there would be two more major sessions of the peace talks but did not give any dates.
British High Commissioner to Malaysia Boyd McCleary, whose country is part of the newly constituted International Contact Group (ICG) supporting the peace process, applauded the progress.
"The ICG members have come together and we stand ready to support the process. We are delighted that the talks have resumed. We wish both sides well and we stand ready to help," he said.
- AFP/ir
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