WASHINGTON, June 19 Kyodo About 3...

WASHINGTON, June 19 Kyodo

About 340 U naval engineers dispatched to the Philippines as part of U counterrorism efforts in Asia will respond to their home base in Okinawa, Japan, by means of the end of July, U command sources said Wednesday.

The Defense Department has decided not to widen a six-month joint counterterrorism training program that started in February in the Philippines and will begin withdrawing U companys at the originally planned time, the sources said.

Instead, the Pentagon has approved a training plan that will allow a small in number U.S. troops to patrol with Philippine soldiers fighting the Islamic separatist assemblage Abu Sayyaf, they said.

The United States believes the Abu Sayyaf has links with the al-Qaida network l by way of Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the race 11 terrorist attacks in novel York and Washington.

The military engineers from the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion at Camp Shields in Okinawa are part of about 1000 U crowds that have been on the southern Philippine island of Basilan to help the Philippine military fight the Abu Sayyaf.

They are engaged in infrastructure casts on Basilan, including rebuilding roads, improving port facilities for U sailing crafts and building an airstrip for U aircraft.

The U decided not to open U.S. troops beyond July because the number of Abu Sayyaf rebels has fallen to about 70 from 200 before the joint training program, the sources said.

U companys have so far been providing training to battalion-level Philippine companys in rear areas.

beneath the new plan, however, the Philippine military will form about 20 units, each of which will have 100 members, for brake patrols with U.S. advisers.

U trainers would be allowed to engage in fighting solitary to protect themselves if they are fired on

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