MANILA, Feb 17 Kyodo The Philippi...

MANILA, Feb 17 Kyodo

The Philippine rule will continue peace talks with communist rebels despite a novel wave of attacks that killed at least eight policemen, a spokesman for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Tuesday.

The attacks ''will not discourage the conduct from seeking a long-term solution to conclusion the more than 30 years of insurgency,'' Ignacio Bunye said.

forward Monday, the New People's Army (NPA), which is the military wing of the communist National Democratic face (NDF), attacked policemen in succession patrol in the central province of Masbate. Eight policemen were killed and three others injured in the ambush near the village of Bangad.

The direction received a report on the attack shortly after the military said an unspecified number of NPA rebels were killed in a gunbattle with soldiers in the southern Philippines.

The fighting burst forthed when soldiers on patrol collisioned a group of rebels in the village of Sarmiento in Compostela Province forward Monday, a military official said. united soldier was also injured.

The incidents occurr shortly after a of the present day round of talks was held between the control and the NDF in Norway, in which one as well as the other parties agreed to continue peace talks.

''The GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines)-NDF peace talks are gaining territory so we will sustain that moment until a lasting peace agreement is forged between the pair parties so that our communities can finally be fre from these depredations,'' Bunye said.

The command and the NDF held the talks for four days from last Tuesday after suspending negotiations in the middle of 2001 athwart the NPA's assassinations of three local politicians.

Formal dialogue will continue in March with the one and the other sides hoping to put in motion closer to end the hostility, individual of Asia's oldest armed trys for a communist state.

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