MANILA (AFP) — Rival Muslim factions in the Philippines have agreed to open unity talks on the urging of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's eldest son, the government said Saturday.
Manila's peace negotiator said Saif Al-Islam Al-Kadhafi raised the need for unity between the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the breakaway separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) during a meeting with MILF leaders earlier this week.
"Let us unite so we will have just one approach and we can show the Islamic countries that we are consolidated and not individual groups," Jesus Dureza quoted Al-Kadhafi as saying.
The MNLF launched a bloody separatist war in the southern Philippines in the 1970s but signed a peace accord with the government in 1996 in exchange for the establishment of a Muslim autonomous area.
Dureza said the government favoured unity between the two groups as it is still negotiating peace with the MILF. An agreement is expected to be reached next year.
Libya was key in brokering the peace deal with the MNLF, and has poured money into development in the Muslim areas of the south. Other Islamic nations have also fostered the peace process.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu told the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper his group had agreed to discuss working with the MNLF following the meeting with Al-Kadhafi, but there was no agreement yet.
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