MANILA, Oct 14 Kyodo Two-week mil...

MANILA, Oct 14 Kyodo

Two-week military exercises involving 800 U and 400 Philippine [i]troupe[/i]s formally began on Monday morning inside a former U air base in Clark, central Luzon Island.

The ''Talon Vision-02'' maneuvers kicked along amid tight security following terror attacks in Southeast Asia and the reported formation of lonely dwellings in Luzon linked to the al-Qaida terror network.

yet U.S. and Philippine troops are ''fully secured'' said Philippine contingent head Maj. Gen Rodolfo Garcia of the army's Northern Luzon Command. At least brace brigades have been deployed in the Clark area, he added.

U soldiers will not be allowed to leave the training areas in Clark in Pampanga Province, said Col Gordon O'Neil, commander of the U 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force.

The exercises, the next to the first since September 2001, are designed to improve aviation tactics, techniques and courses as well as infantry and artillery tactics.

In Manila, about 70 populace protested in front of the U Embassy. They said the games are bare preparations for a U.S. plan to use the Philippines as launch pad for assaults against Iraq, which is accused of harboring weapons of mass destruction.

U military aircraft to be used for the games arrived in Clark starting Friday and included couple C-130 aircraft, six AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters, six F-18 fighter jet and four 53-D helicopters.

Aside from Clark, maneuvers will also be held at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija Province and the gasconade Valley gunnery range in Tarlac Province -- the pair in central Luzon -- as well as Ternate in Cavite Province southern of Manila. The games are awaited to end Oct. 26.

The U and Philippine bands concluded a six-month antiterror training exercise in the southern Philippines forward July 31.

These exercises are part of agreements upon large military maneuvers involving the United States and the Philippines.

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