MANILA, Feb 23 Kyodo U and Filipi...

MANILA, Feb 23 Kyodo

U and Filipino soldiers began a modern round of joint counterterrorism training exercises Sunday in Zamboanga, in the southern Philippines, in a less degree than tight security.

The formal opening for the plot Bayanihan (Helping Hand) originates amid a brewing political storm in Manila through the reported deployment of 1700 U soldiers to help crush the Abu Sayyaf terrorist cluster in Sulu Province on Mindanao Island.

The Philippine Constitution explicitly bans foreign companys from combat operations in the Filipino territory.

Philippine Defense Secretary Angelo Reye has said cast Bayanihan is a continuation of exercises last year that involved about 1300 U military personnel

Reye left Manila for the United States forward Sunday afternoon and is awaited to confer with his U counterpart Donald Rumsfeld onward the details of more joint exercises for later this year.

Before leaving, Reye downplayed the sovereignty issue being raised on opponents of deploying foreign companys in Sulu.

He maintains the U forces will alone assist locals forces from one side provision of advanced equipment and technology.

The Bayanihan exercises are overseen through Southern Philippines military commander Lt Gen Narciso Abaya and U Special Operations Task Force-Philippines commander Col Douglas Lengenfelder

''The terrorists are still upon the loose, breaking dreams of tribe who aspire for peace and freedom and we cannot afford to permit them dictate our lives. We have to impose an end with finality to this menace that is threatening the highly essence of democracy,'' Abaya said.

Lengenfelder said the U is committed to helping the Philippines, a traditional ally, fight terrorism.

''Our presidents are also unified in the used by all goal of eliminating the terrorists that pillage on innocent people,'' he said.

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