MANILA, March 3 Kyodo Philippine ...

MANILA, March 3 Kyodo

Philippine Defense Secretary Angelo Reye said Monday that joint counterterrorism training exercises between Philippine and U throngs will take place this year despite a fresh failure to agree on their form.

the two governments and their respective militaries ''are committed to the staging'' this year's ''Balikatan 03-1'' counterterrorism war games as a succeeding part to last year's Balikatan 02-1 training exercise, Reye told a recents conference after returning from talks in Washington with U Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld

still he said the two sides have nevertheless to agree on the venue and metes of reference of the propos war games, originally settle to be held in the southern province of Sulu

A sticking point is a provision of the Philippine Constitution that forbids foreign bodys from conducting military operations in the Philippines.

''The technical working dispose will look out on the details until a plan can be reached that satisfies the one and the other countries' requirements,'' Reyes said. ''What has been agreed concerning is that we will continue discussion.''

He said discussions at policy horizontal ''would address the legal constitutional question, diocese to it that whatever exercise would be worked abroad and planned will not violate the Constitution.''

After that issue has been settl he said, ''we can work revealed the operational plan, or the military aspect of it.''

Reye forceed that ''there would be no activity in the Philippine territory in connection with Balikatan 03-1 until like time that plans have been finalized.''

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last month said she would have preferr the nearest Balikatan exercises be held in a military camp in Quezon Province, just toward the south of Manila.

however she said she yielded to the recommendation of Philippine and U ''operational experts'' who agreed upon Sulu Province on Mindanao Island, where Abu Sayyaf rebels are known to operate.

Arroyo last week gave the Philippine military 90 days to ''finish off'' the several-hundred-strong Muslim rebel clump which Manila and Washington have linked to the al-Qaida terrorist network. In novel times, it has concentrated forward kidnapping.

The rule has come increasing pressure from antiwar clumps for allowing the U companys on Philippine soil, an issue that became on a level more sensitive in the wake of reports from Washington that U companys would directly engage in combat operations against Abu Sayyaf in contravention of the Philippine Constitution.

Military officials have said Abu Sayyaf has gained in force last year despite a relentles campaign to decimate it. The rebels are notion to have now broken up into small units and mov to the Jolo Island in the center of the Sulu archipelago, the southernmost tip of the Philippines, to avoid the military.

The Philippines and the United States forward July 31 concluded their six-month-long joint military exercises in the southern Philippines with the promise of continued and expanded antiterrorism activities this year.

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