MANILA - Philippine President Gloria Arroyo and Congress leaders agreed on Friday to craft a unified approach to Manila's dormant claim to the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island.

The meeting was called after several lawmakers sought to revive the claim to Sabah in retaliation for the mass deportation of thousands of Filipino illegal migrants from Malaysia.

Manila has a longstanding claim on Sabah, which it says was part of the Islamic sultanate of Sulu in the southern Philippines before Malaysia obtained independence.

After the meeting, Arroyo thanked the legislators who attended for their "very sober suggestions and recommendations."

"We are affirmed that we can indeed come up with a national unified position on the Sabah issue at this time," a presidential palace statement quoted her as saying.

It did not say what the recommendations were or what the unified position would be.