MANILA - President Gloria Arroyo assured Kuala Lumpur on Friday her government would take steps to ensure safe passage to Malaysia of Muslim guerrilla peace negotiators who are being hunted in the Philippines for alleged terrorist activity.

Malaysian ambassador to Manila Taufik Mohamed Noor warned earlier Friday that his government would be unable to honor its offer to host peace talks between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) unless Manila lifts arrest warrants and bounties on the heads of top rebel negotiators.

A lower court in Davao has a standing order for the arrest of MILF chief Salamat Hashim and dozens of other MILF men, including top rebel negotiator Murad Ebrahim for their alleged role in the bombing of the city's airport and port earlier this year that claimed at least 38 lives.

"It has to be resolved," Taufik told reporters here. "It is a prerequisite."

Going through the mechanics

Arroyo spokesman Ignacio Bunye sought to downplay an apparent obstacle to ending the decades-long rebellion in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines.

"I believe it's a matter of just going through the mechanics," Bunye told reporters.

"There's been an agreement in principle that efforts would be exerted so that the parties will be able to attend. But as we have consistently said, they (MILF) have to take the lead. The other side would have to participate in the process," he said without elaborating.

"The executive is prepared to act on the problem" of the rewards offered by Manila for the arrest of Hashim and other top MILF officials, senior Arroyo adviser Renato de Villa, a retired general, said Friday.

Judicial relief

But he said granting safe conduct passes to Hashim and the others would be "incompatible with the existing warrants of arrest" against them, unless the rebels themselves sought judicial relief.

MILF spokesman Mohagher Iqbal said his group dared not risk the detention of its leaders, and demanded that Manila drop the criminal charges against them.

Official sources said Malaysia has expressed concern that should the talks fail, it could be hit with a political asylum request by the rebel negotiators. - AFP