MILF chief sees breakthrough in Philippine talks

CAMP DARAPANAN, Philippines, Mar 10 (Reuters) The head of the Philippines' largest Islamic guerrilla group said today the government had offered Muslims in the south the right of self determination which he called a breakthrough in efforts to end one of the world's longest-running insurgencies.

''It can be a breakthrough,'' Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Al Haj Murad told reporters in his camp in the jungles of Mindanao in the southern Philippines. ''We appreciate this development, we feel it is an advancement in the search for peace in Mindanao.'' Talks with the MILF and the government have been stalled since September but there have been informal contacts.

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