MANILA - Officials from Manila will go to Malaysia in an attempt to revive stalled peace talks with the biggest Philippine Muslim separatist movement, a government peace panel said yesterday.

Four advisers to President Gloria Arroyo will depart to meet representatives of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Kuala Lumpur, said Josita Andot, the panel's director.

She said that the talks would be "mainly exploratory" but the biggest challenge was to restore the discussion process to the level before negotiations stalled due to a new round of fighting earlier this year.

More than 400 people, mostly MILF fighters, were reportedly killed in the fighting which climaxed last month with the capture of a MILF enclave in the troubled southern Philippines.

Fighting had subsided in recent days.

Unconditional talks

Andot said the main question was "how to go back to the previous level of negotiations with the MILF."

"Both sides are saying they are supportive of the peace process," she said.

There are no conditions attached to the two-day talks in Kuala Lumpur, Andot said, adding however that the government and the MILF will aim for a possible "cessation of hostilities."

Malaysia has been hosting for several years the formal negotiations between Manila and the 12,500-strong MILF, which has been waging a 25-year insurgency to establish an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines.

The MILF had been blamed for a series of attacks o­n government and civilian targets in recent months, including a southern airport bomb blast that killed 22 people and wounded 150 others o­n March 4.