MANILA (AFP) - Philippine government and Muslim rebel negotiators will meet in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday for the first time since a wave of bloody clashes erupted in the troubled south, a rebel official said.
The informal talks in the Malaysian capital will address an on-off peace process and the tensions that surged over two weeks of bloody fighting in October, which left as many as 40 soldiers, police and civilians dead.
'The talks are more important now because there are many issues to discuss such as what happened (in October),' Ghadzali Jaafar, vice-chairman of the 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said on Wednesday.
But he said the new talks were scheduled before the outbreak of fighting between government forces and MILF-linked gunmen last month, and dismissed the clashes as a 'minor issue'.
