Muslim rebels prepare counter offer to Manila

MANILA, Nov 25 (Reuters) The largest of four Islamic rebel groups in the Philippines was preparing a counter proposal to Manila's offer to expand the areas to be covered by an ancestral homeland for Muslims, said a guerrilla leader today.

Mohaqher Iqbal, head of the negotiating panel of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said some provisions in the government's proposal was ''agreeable'' and may lead to the resumption of talks in Malaysia.

''It's like doing business,'' Iqbal told reporters. ''The government's proposal has a tag price. So, we will bargain.

We'll offer another proposal to them.'' Iqbal said the rebels' counter offer was being reviewed by the MILF leadership and was unsure when his group could actually respond to the government's proposal to restart negotiations to end nearly 40 years of conflict that killed 120,000 people.

''Some of government's proposals were positive, but others need to be discussed further,'' Iqbal said, adding MILF political and military leaders held discussions last week to dissect Manila's peace formula.

Jesus Dureza, the president's adviser on the peace process, said the government was giving the rebels enough time ''to determine what is best for them and for their destiny''.

''We will wait for them to respond to it,'' Dureza said.

The government sent its fresh initiative on November. 9 through the Malaysian government which has been facilitating the negotiations since March 2001.

Peace talks have stalled since June because of differences over the size and wealth of a proposed homeland for 3 million Muslims in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country in Southeast Asia.

The MILF wants to add more than 1,000 villages to an existing five-province Muslim autonomous region in the resource-rich south without a referendum. The government has said it must put the demand to a poular vote.

Many of the villages earmarked for membership of a Muslim homeland lie far from the existing autonomous region and are surrounded by Christian territory.

REUTERS PDM RK1535