But it suggested that if such links were to be proven, it would be a setback for efforts to forge a peace settlement with the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The rebels' alleged ties with the JI, which is linked to the al-Qaida international terror network of Osama bin Laden, has cropped up anew as another team of ceasefire monitors arrived from Brunei Wednesday.

"So far there are no organizational links between the MILF and the JI,” Defense Undersecretary Rodolfo Garcia, a member of the government peace panel holding talks with the Moro rebels, said Wednesday.

The reported incursions by JI agents into rebel-controlled areas in Mindanao to train MILF guerrillas were being addressed by the MILF hierarchy, Garcia said.

But if evidence of links between the MILF and the JI were to be uncovered, it would constitute a violation

of the ceasefire agreement forged by the government and the MILF on December 2003, said Garcia.

The MILF has consistently denied any ties with the regional terror group.

Malaysian Major General Zulkifeli bin Mohd Zin, the head of the international ceasefire monitoring team, stressed that the team's job was merely to check the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and did not include looking into the MILF's alleged terror ties.

Zulkifeli, who was with the initial 51-member team that arrived from Malaysia on October 9, said the team, which had done this kind of work with the United Nations troops before, had not encountered any problems.

"We find the southern part of the Philippines very much like home," he said.

The 10-man team from Brunei, headed by Colonel Aminuddin Ihsan, arrived at noon Wednesday. This is the first time that Brunei will be taking part in such a mission, said Brunei Ambassador Hajah Maimunah Dato Paduka Haji Elias Amil.

Monitors from other member-countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference are expected to follow soon.