PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia has reversed a decision to pull out cease-fire monitors from the southern Philippines after Manila insisted the troops were still needed to safeguard a truce with Muslim rebels, Malaysia’s foreign minister said yesterday.

Rais Yatim said his country will maintain at least 12 peacekeepers on the violence-scarred Mindanao Island after the Philippine government told Malaysia that its “cooperation and services are continually needed.”

Rais said Malaysia will continue to lead a contingent of truce monitors that includes both military and nonmilitary personnel from Brunei, Libya, Japan and Canada.

Malaysia had announced in April it would completely withdraw about 40 personnel in stages because of frustrations over the slow pace of talks between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Nearly 30 peacekeepers have since returned to Malaysia.

“The Philippine government has been kind enough to indicate that Malaysia’s presence (in the southern Philippines) will be a plus point,” Rais told reporters Monday.

“Deriving from that, we would continue the work.”

Rais indicated that Malaysia also backtracked because both sides recently agreed to sign a preliminary accord granting minority Muslims in the Philippines an expanded homeland.

The pact was supposed to be signed in Malaysia today, but the Philippine Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order yesterday to delay the ceremony after Christian politicians objected to the deal because the Philippine government failed to publicly disclose its contents.

Rais said Malaysia would welcome the agreement as a “milestone and success.”

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, estimated to have 11,000 fighters, has been battling for self-rule in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines’ volatile south for decades.

Peace talks between Manila and the rebels have been brokered by Malaysia, which headed the cease-fire monitors that have been credited with easing violent clashes in the area.

Under the 2003 cease-fire, clashes have dropped from up to 700 a year to just 15 last year.