U S cancels Philippine war games over rape spat

MANILA, Dec 22 (Reuters) The United States said today it was pulling the plug on annual joint military exercises with the Philippines next year in an escalating dispute over custody of a U S Marine convicted of raping a local woman.

The case of Lance Corporal Daniel Smith has become a major headache for the Philippine government, which agrees with Washington that under the terms of a Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) he should remain in U S custody while he appeals.

But a local court has defied the government and sent the 21-year-old to a Manila jail, jeopardising the Philippines' close security alliance with its former colonial master.

''Until the Philippine courts are able to ensure that the Philippines is in full compliance with the VFA, it would not be prudent to bring additional troops here for exercises at this time,'' US embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop told Reuters.

Manila is reliant on US military aid and advice to help fight Muslim insurgents and, in addition to the annual war games, has up to 300 US military advisers working with local troops to help them ensnare militants in the restive south.

Lussenhop said there were no plans to curtail ongoing U.S.

military activities in the Philippines but said Washington was keeping an eye on developments in Smith's case.

''We'll make decisions on future military activities as we review the custody case,'' he said.

The annual ''Balikatan'' (shoulder-to-shoulder) war games are the centre piece of Washington and Manila's close security alliance and usually involve up to 5,000 U.S. soldiers and around 3,000 Filipino troops over a two-week period.

The war games, which took place from Feb. 20 to March 5.

this year, consist of command post exercises, field and cross-training activities, live-fire drills and humanitarian and civil assistance such as road repairs and engineering works.

Smith had taken part in the war exercises last year. He was found guilty of raping a 23-year-old management accounting graduate in a van in a former US navy base while on shore leave at the end of the exercise.

Three other US Marines were acquitted of rape earlier this month.

Smith, who faces up to 40 years in prison, has been held in a jail in Manila's financial district since his conviction, which followed a seven-month trial that prompted small protests against US-Philippine military ties and intense local media interest.

The sailors said only Smith had sex with the woman and that it was consensual. They claimed the woman was being manipulated to incriminate them.

REUTERS MS HT1407