Manila's Arroyo suspends army offensive in south

MANILA, July 27 (Reuters) President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who hosts Asia's biggest security summit next week, has ordered Philippine troops to hold off attacking Muslim rebels blamed for killing 14 Marines and beheading 10 of them.

Military chief General Hermogenes Esperon said Arroyo wanted to give a joint team of government officials, rebels and a non-government group time to complete an investigation to determine who was responsible for the killings and mutilations earlier this month.

''We're suspending offensives until the investigation on the beheading incident is through,'' Esperon told a news conference at an airbase in the southern port city of Zamboanga today.

''We're also waiting for the local court to issue the warrants of arrest against those suspected to have taken active part in the carnage.'' Arroyo, wearing a camouflage fatigue vest with a presidential seal, presided over a military briefing at the main army base in the south, where a Muslim minority has been fighting for independence from the central government for decades.

The embassies of Japan, Canada and the World Bank wrote to the government this week expressing concern about the possibility of a military offensive in the south, where they have aid projects.

Arroyo, who is also commander-in-chief, will host foreign ministers from Japan, China, the EU and 24 other countries next week when they gather in Manila for talks.

The predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines' hopes of an early restart to peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's largest Muslim rebel group, were shattered by the ambush on July 10 on the southern island of Basilan in which the marines were killed.

The MILF said the military should have warned them that soldiers were entering their territory and they have denied that their members mutilated the men's bodies.

Today, local police filed murder charges against 40 members of the MILF and the Abu Sayyaf militant group, who were suspected of being behind the beheading of the 10 marines.

REUTERS GT RN1459