Philippine govt, rebels hold Norway peace talks

By John Acher

OSLO (Reuters) - The Philippine government and the rebel National Democratic Front met in Norway for informal peace talks on May 13-15, the first such meeting in almost three years, Norwegian diplomats said on Thursday.

"The (government of the Philippines) and the NDF have exchanged views on the status of the peace process," the Norwegian foreign ministry said in a statement. "The parties have agreed to meet again, and have invited Norway to facilitate a meeting later this year."

The secret talks, which were requested by both sides, were the first meeting between the negotiating panels since August 2005, the ministry said. Formal talks between the two sides had stalled a year earlier.

The military wing of the NDF has waged an armed rebellion to set up a Maoist state in the Southeast Asian country, a nearly 40-year conflict that has killed more than 40,000. Manila has been holding on-and-off peace talks with the NDF since 1986.

The Philippine government is also engaged in a conflict with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front which is fighting for a Muslim homeland in the south of the largely Catholic country.

"These were informal talks, with the intention of paving the way for formal meetings of the two negotiating panels," the NDF's chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni told Reuters, calling the meeting "a very frank exchange of views".

The government's chief negotiator Nieves Confesor said: "There is interest on both sides to start to resume (talks) and to see how we could go forward with the process, and it went very well."

"We have some more work to do," she told Reuters, adding that no date was set for the next meeting. She confirmed that it could happen this year.