ISABELA (Philippines), June 3: The Philippines and the United States agreed on Monday to move US special forces closer to combat areas in the country’s south in a stepped-up manhunt for guerillas accused of having links with Osama bin Laden.

The presidential palace in Manila announced the decision as US deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz flew to the southern island of Basilan, stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf group, met US troops training Filipino soldiers in counter-terrorism.

Delayed military reports said six guerrillas and a soldier were killed in fighting on Sunday with another Abu Sayyaf group operating on Jolo island, near Basilan. The fighting broke out when troops raided a guerrilla lair in the Jolo hills.

“There was consensus that training will be intensified and pushed forward to the company level,” Philippine presidential spokesman Silvestre Afable said after talks between Wolfowitz and government officials.

“It implies that this is closer to the action,” he told a press briefing.

But US troops will not be allowed to engage the rebels in combat as “this is the war of our own armed forces”, he added.

Although fully armed, they can fire only in self-defence.

Both sides said the two governments were also considering extending the joint military exercises in the country’s south aimed at wiping out the rebels but no decision had been taken.

“That’s one of the questions I hope to be better informed about when I leave here. Those are decisions that have to be made by both our governments,” Wolfowitz told reporters after talks with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Around 1,000 US troops are training Filipino soldiers fighting the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.

The southern Philippines exercises, which began in February and are due to end next month, represent Washington’s biggest troop deployment in the “war on terror” after Afghanistan.

Most of the joint exercises have been held near military camps on Basilan, the stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf fighters 900kms south of Manila.

If deployed at the company level, the US troops would be spread over a wider area of the jungle-clad island with a higher chance of contact with the guerrillas.

Wolfowitz was met by Basilan’s Muslim provincial governor Wahab Akbar and about 100 residents dressed in traditional tribal costume when he arrived aboard a US army helicopter at an army camp in the provincial capital Isabela.

Wolfowitz, dressed in a pink polo shirt, immediately went into a closed door huddle with Philippine and US commanders.

Arroyo said she favoured deploying US troops closer to the frontlines to enable them to better train local soldiers. Gracia Burnham, on Basilan.

The area which Wolfowitz visited is only some 30-40 km from the hills where a US couple are believed to be held in captivity by the Abu Sayyaf.—Reuters