Poor security across the Philippines remains a risk and Aquino has said a secure and sustained peace is needed to foster growth and investment.
Negotiators from Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) met in Kuala Lumpur for informal talks to find ways to restart peace talks, stalled since last June despite Aquino`s pledge to pursue negotiations.
Malaysia has hosted talks since 2001 to end a conflict that has killed 120,000 people, displaced 2 million and stunted growth and investment in southern areas of the Philippines believed to hold rich deposits of minerals, oil and natural gas.
"We have agreed to meet again on Feb. 8 and proceed to more substantive issues," Mohagher Iqbal, the rebels` chief negotiator told Reuters. "We had a productive meeting today and we`re happy that we have cleared a lot of the issues."
A member of the government`s peace panel, who did not want to be identified, said the talks had produced positive results.
Attempts to restart peace talks had stalled over government efforts to replace a Malaysian facilitator, seen by some officials as biased towards the rebels.
The two sides discussed processes and ways to enhance existing mechanisms, such as the ceasefire panel, international monitoring team and an anti-crime panel to stop kidnapping and prevent Islamist militants from operating in the south.
Both sides declined to comment on the issue of replacing the facilitator.
The last time the two sides held talks was in June, before Aquino came to office, when they failed to reach a deal on rebels` demands to set up a state within the Philippines to allow Muslims` self-rule in the south.
On Thursday, another set of government negotiators left for Norway for five days to hold informal talks with the Maoist National Democratic Front to end four decades of communist insurgency. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
