Malaysia will send an advance party of peace monitors to the Philippines this week to supervise a ceasefire between government forces and Muslim separatist guerrillas, Defence Minister Najib Abdul Razak said today.

The first batch of eight officers would arrive in Manila on Friday and the team of 60 - 51 army officers, five policemen and four foreign ministry officials - would be in the Philippines by Oct 9, he told a news conference.

The southern Philippines has been plagued by Muslim separatist violence by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front for years. Muslim Malaysia has offered a neutral venue for forthcoming peace talks as well as ceasefire monitors.

Najib said Malaysia would also try to get several other countries to provide manpower for an international peace-monitoring force.

The terms of reference for the team would be finalised in a day or two, he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

The monitors would remain in the Philippines for as long as they were needed, although the government would review the deployment after a year, he said.