Australia helps boost Manila's anti-terror fight

Manila, May 23: Australia will give the Phillipines some 200 million pesos (3.8 million dollars) worth of high tech forensic equipment to boost its ability to investigate terror attacks, a police general said today.

Ernesto Belen, head of the Philippine national police crime laboratory, said five machines used for chemical analysis of explosives were expected to arrive in Manila by August as part of a 10-million dollars counter-terrorism assistance package from Australia.

Over the last four years, Australia has allocated nearly 130 million dollars in regional counter-terrorism assistance after a series of deadly bombings in Indonesia and the Philippines by Islamic militants linked to al Qaeda.

Disaster equipment given to the Philippines in February was used by police to identify hundreds of bodies recovered from a mudslide on the central island of Leyte.

''This high-tech equipment would certainly help make our jobs easy and boost our overall counter-terrorism efforts,'' Belen told reporters, adding Australia had also trained 25 police officers in investigation techniques.

Belen said the Philippines was expected to get more under Australia's new four-year regional counter-terrorism package of 93 million dollars.

Australia has been expanding security cooperation with Southeast Asian states to prevent Jemaah Islamiah, a regional network of militants, from carrying out bombings in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

In an interview with Reuters this month, Philippine Defence Secretary Avelino Cruz said Manila and Canberra were also working on an agreement to allow Australian troops to train and exercise on Philippine soil.

Cruz said an agreement could allow thousands of Australian soldiers to participate in annual military exercises with Philippine and U S troops.

REUTERS