The Philippine rebel group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said Thursday that the government and the MILF negotiation panels have quietly agreed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to resume the stalled formal peace talks as soon as possible.

"Formal talks, stalled since the middle of last year, are expected to resume in January," said Ghazali Jaafar, MILF political affairs chief.

Maulana Bobby Alonto, a member of the MILF peace panel, also said in a statement that the parties agreed to move forward "to remove some thorny issues that hindered the resumption of stalled formal peace negotiations."

The two panels also agreed to activate their respective technical committees and subdivided these into four technical working groups that will draw up working papers on the following components -- ancestral domain, territory, governance, and resources, Alonto said.

The government and the 12,000-strong MILF agreed to involve the international cease-fire monitor team on June 22, 2001.

There have been snags in the peace negotiations between the twopanels due to suspicions that the MILF was providing training venues for the regional terrorist group Jema'ah Islamiyah, affiliated with the al-Qaeda network behind the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

The latest postponement of peace talks was made after the firstbreach of a 13-month cease-fire by a clash between the two sides in Mindanao on Aug. 17, leaving three dead.

Source: Xinhua