MANILA: The Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group has appealed to the international community to help bring the government and guerrillas back to the negotiating table and end fighting in the south, television said yesterday.

“We are calling upon the international community to intercede,” Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim, chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), told Al-Jazeera television in an interview from a rebel base on the southern island of Mindanao.

“We still believe that the best situation is going back to the peace process,” he said, adding he feared the escalating violence in the south could turn the island into another Iraq or Afghanistan. “We don’t want that.”

The 11,000-member Muslim separatist group has been fighting for nearly 40 years to achieve self-determination in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic state.

The conflict has killed more than 120,000 people and stunted growth in a region believed to be sitting on rich deposits of metals, oil and natural gas.

Last month, three rogue commanders of the MILF went on the rampage after a deal on expanding an autonomous Muslim region was halted by the Supreme Court, forcing Manila to dissolve its peace panel and end talks with the rebels.

Close to 300 people have been killed in almost four weeks of hostilities in four southern provinces. Fighting has subsided since the start of Ramadan on Sept. 1, but flared up last week when rebels attacked army positions.

Manila now says it wants to restart negotiations, and sent emissaries to Kuala Lumpur last week to inform the Malaysian government, which has been brokering the talks since 2001, about the shift in policy.

But, the rebels rejected the offer because Manila insisted the three rogue commanders be turned over and that disarmament be discussed ahead of any political deal.

Meanwhile, three communist rebels were killed in a clash with government troops in the central Philippines, an army spokesman said yesterday.

The firefight erupted on Thursday while troops were on patrol in the village of Malungkay in Zamboanguita town, Negros Oriental province, about 675 km south of Manila.

Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner said troops recovered two M16 rifles and one M14 rifle after the clash.

No casualties were reported on the government side, he said.

Communist rebels have been fighting the Philippine government since the late 1960s, making the movement one of the longest-running leftist insurgencies in Asia.