Philippine Vice President Teofisto Guingona is to leave for Libya Monday to lead officials in the opening of peace talks with the country's main Muslim separatist group.
Guingona, who is also foreign minister, told reporters Sunday that representatives from Malaysia and Indonesia will also attend the June 20 talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to be hosted by Libyan president Moamer Kadhafi.
"Libya wants to give due importance to the coming peace proposal," Guingona said.
Libya, along with fellow Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) members Malaysia and Indonesia, helped initiate peace talks between Manila and the larger Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in 1996.
The 12,500-strong MILF is the country's main Muslim separatist group waging a 23-year war for the establishment of an independent Islamic state in the south. It splintered from the MNLF in 1978 and was left out of the 1996 peace accord.
Libya wants "to continue what it started with the MILF," Guingona said.
The landmark peace talks will be held in "shifting venues" between Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, Indonesia's Jakarta and Libyan capital Tripoli, with representatives from the three countries acting as mediators, he said.
Guingona did not say whether the Philippine government would discuss Libya's earlier offer of help to solve an ongoing hostage crisis on southern Basilan island involving the smaller Abu Sayyaf group -- MANILA (AFP)
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