But Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chief Murad Ebrahim hit out at what he said were elements in the military and government who were out to "sabotage" the peace talks by painting his group as terrorists.

The Malaysian team arrived in the Philippines Saturday and will travel later Sunday to the southern island of Mindanao, the center of the rebels 26-year insurgency to set up an Islamic state the largely Roman Catholic Philippines.

In an interview with Agence France-Presse in the MILF's Camp Darapanan, Ebrahim said hostilities have dropped significantly since an advance team of monitors came earlier this month.

Malaysia and fellow Muslim nation Brunei are to monitor the progress of a 2002 truce signed by the MILF and the Philippines, paving the way for peace negotiations

expected to resume this month in Kuala Lumpur.

However Ebrahim said there would be no peace with Manila if sections in the military remained intent on fanning allegations that the MILF sheltered militants from the Al-Qaeda linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

"Frankly, we feel there are people in government who don't want peace in Mindanao," Ebrahim said, stressing that while President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo appeared sincere in negotiating, unnamed officials could be "manipulating the situation."

"This kind of position ruins the confidence building process and disrupts the negotiations," said Ebrahim, a battle-scarred 54-year-old who rose to become MILF chair last year when the influential Islamic scholar Salamat Hashim died of natural causes.

He charged that some corrupt officials within the military were selling automatic rifles to the insurgents while others were continuing to link them to JI.

JI is has been blamed for the October 2002 bombings of Bali, Indonesia and the recent car bomb outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

Continuing allegations about JI may be designed to get the United States military involved in Mindanao, a scenario that could cause further bloodshed, he warned.

Ebrahim said that after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US in 2001, the MILF closed all its camps in Mindanao to foreigners.

However he admitted that prior to that, Islamic scholars from the Middle East and even Europe and the United States were "ordinary visitors" to the MILF's Camp Abubakar.

The sprawling camp was once the MILF's main stronghold in Mindanao, but it was overrun by the military in 1998 in a major offensive that left hundreds dead and tens of thousands displaced.

MILF is willing to sign a peace accord with Arroyo to end one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies if the government addresses their demands for self-governance and recognition of their ancestral lands in mineral-rich Mindanao, Ebrahim said.

"We will not go for a piecemeal solution to the problem, which we feel will not work," Ebrahim added, stressing that the next round of negotiations would likely focus on the political issues he raised.

Malaysian Armed Forces Chief General Mohamed Zahidi Zainuddin earlier told the Bernama news agency that the Malaysian team was expected to be in the southern Philippines for about a year.

"It is an honor for Malaysia to be part of the peace process and it reflects the mutual trust and confidence by both parties toward Malaysia," said Mahinder Singh, the Malaysian embassy charge d'affaires as he met the monitors.