Manila wants 11,000 more troops to defeat rebels

MANILA, Oct 20 (Reuters) Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the recruitment of an extra 11,000 troops to step up the fight against communist rebels and Islamic militants, the military's chief of staff said today.

General Hermogenes Esperon said additional forces were needed to check the expansion of the communist New People's Army (NPA) into urban centres and reduce the fighting capability of the rebels by 50 per cent within the next three years.

The Philippines, a close ally to the United States, now has about 118,000 members of the military but has been hampered in its security operations by underfunding, corruption, low morale and a lack of modern equipment.

Since 1969, the Philippines has been battling the Maoist-led NPA, which has about 7,000 fighters and is active in 69 of 79 provinces in a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people.

Peace talks with the NPA, brokered by Norway, stalled in 2004 and both sides appear reluctant to resume negotiations due to the military's offensive in rural areas outside Manila.

In June, Arroyo declared ''all-out war'' against the communist movement after some NPA leaders conspired with rogue troops and some political foes in an alleged plot to oust her in February.

Esperon said the offensive against hundreds of Muslim rebels with ties to Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a Southeast Asian group that seeks a pan-Islamic state in the region, would continue until ''our high-value targets are finished off''.

He said three fresh battalions would be sent to the remote southwestern island of Jolo to join about 6,000 troops trying to flush out Abu Sayyaf, the most violent of four Muslim rebel group in the southern Philippines.

Security forces are on maximum alert in the south after a series of bomb blasts in five urban centres this month. The blasts were blamed on Abu Sayyaf.

REUTERS BDP BST1815