MANILA, Dec 19: A Philippines military spokesman said on Wednesday that the government should accept offers by the United States or other countries to help fight guerrillas linked to Osama bin Laden.

US military men are already in the Philippines in a limited advisory role to help Filipino troops fighting the Abu Sayyaf group, which holds a US couple hostage in the southern island of Basilan.

Armed forces spokesman Brigadier General Edilberto Adan suggested that there is room for more direct US involvement.

“This campaign against terrorism is a war without borders. They strike not only Filipinos, they strike at any nationality and we should be open-minded if there are nations willing to help to fight against terrorism,” he told reporters.

Foreign offers of help should be welcomed “for as long as our sovereignty is respected, according to the established rules.”

Philippine officials have said US President George W. Bush offered American combat troops to Filipino leader Gloria Arroyo when she visited Washington last month.

Arroyo aides have said US troops would be welcome to provide training to Filipino forces fighting the Abu Sayyaf, but not to join the actual combat.

Manila and Washington have a 50-year-old mutual defence treaty committing both countries to each other’s side in case of an attack.

Adan said the mutual defence pact was “not specific” on whether Filipino and US troops could fight side by side against guerrilla groups such as the Abu Sayyaf.

Libya exile: An exile in Libya may be considered to end the impasse over Nur Misuari, the Philippines said on Wednesday as Malaysia rejected the detained Filipino Muslim leader’s request for political protection and vowed to deport him to Manila.

Aides to Filipino President Gloria Arroyo said that aside from returning Misuari to Manila, her government was also open to exiling him to Libya or to have him detained at a Filipino embassy in a third country.

Misuari, a former separatist guerrilla leader, fled to Malaysia four weeks ago after the Philippine army crushed an armed revolt by his followers.

But his uncertain status has caused friction between the two neighbours.

Kuala Lumpur, saddled with half a million Filipino refugees from Misuari’s separatist rebellion in the 1970s and anxious not to be tainted with any connection to what could be seen as terrorism, wants to deport him by December 24.

It has further threatened to turn him loose to a third country unless Manila takes him under its custody.

Arroyo has asked for more time, partly because she does not want his followers to rally round him and add to problems in the southern Philippines, where Manila is facing two other Muslim separatist rebellions.

Misuari, 60, who faces rebellion charges in the Philippines, punishable by 20 years in jail, wants to seek asylum to an unspecified third country and has asked the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to help.

“As far as we are concerned, we don’t recognise any request for political asylum or protection,” a top official with the Malaysian foreign ministry told AFP.

Arroyo spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao acknowledged Wednesday that sending Misuari to Libya was an option.

“We haven’t received any official communication from the Libyan government,” he stressed. “When we receive such communications, then we can respond to that more properly.”

Libya, which along with Malaysia had backed Misuari’s war in the early 1970s, later provided refuge to the exiled Filipino rebel leader after Tripoli and the Islamic bloc brokered a 1976 ceasefire between his forces and the Philippine government.

He also stayed in Saudi Arabia for a time.

A popular revolt later toppled the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship, and Misuari returned to the Philippines to sign a peace agreement with Manila in 1996.

Another Arroyo aide, Roberto Gonzales, told reporters Manila would also consult with Indonesia and Malaysia over an alternative plan to have Misuari placed in the custody of a Filipino embassy in an Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) country.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Nur Hassan Wirajuda and his Malaysian counterpart Syed Hamid Albar are to visit the Philippines on Thursday, Gonzales told reporters. Both countries are OIC members.

“If we don’t bring him here, the arraignment (for the rebellion charges) can be done in absentia. Theoretically speaking, since our Philippine embassy is a Philippine territory, he can be tried there,” Gonzales said.

But he stressed that “these are not yet definite. We have to look at this very carefully.”

Tiglao said that since Tripoli has yet to make a formal offer “the most likely option would be to get Misuari back here to face charges”.

Arroyo’s National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said the handover could take place “within the first two weeks of January.”

Hundreds of Misuari followers attacked military outposts in the island of Jolo and Zamboanga city last month to protest the holding of regional elections to choose Misuari’s successor as governor of a Muslim self-rule area in the south.—AFP