Communist leaders living in exile in the Netherlands have agreed to hold talks on a plan similar to one forged earlier by Philippine Muslim rebels to exclude child soldiers, said Radhika Coomaraswamy, a UN special representative for children and armed conflict.

The communist rebels, who have been waging a 42-year insurgency, have been accused of using child soldiers, but say they ban recruitment of anyone younger than 18 to their armed wing, the New People’s Army.

Coomaraswamy said the rebels have not categorically said they have children in their ranks but have acknowledged it is a problem by agreeing to work on a plan to exclude them.

Because of legal implications, most armed groups do not openly admit they have child soldiers but tacitly acknowledge it by entering into an action plan and assisting in identifying children associated with their group, she said.

The Philippine military said 215 NPA child soldiers have surrendered, 121 have been captured and 12 have been killed between January 1999 and January this year.

Coomaraswamy said the communist rebels seemed comfortable with the kind of plan that was concluded with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group, so “we are going to try and move forward on that basis.” Leaders of the Muslim front met this week with Coomaraswamy near their stronghold in southern Maguindanao province and agreed to register all children associated with their group over the next nine months.

After nine months, a ceremony will mark the release of the children from combat roles and they will begin rehabilitation and reintegration through education and vocational training, Coomaraswamy told a news conference.

Nearly 600 minors have been listed as child soldiers in several Muslim rebel strongholds in a program that began last August, but Coomaraswamy said she expects the number will rise to several thousand by the end of the registration period.

The 11,000-strong Muslim rebel force has been waging a rebellion for self-rule in the south, home of many minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines. It has been accused of employing child combatants in violation of international accords but has said it has no policy of recruiting children into its armed force.

The rebels define the age of maturity under Islam as 13 for girls and 14 for boys, rebel leader Mohagher Iqbal said.

Rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu, nevertheless, acknowledged that a “minimal number” of underage rebels have volunteered for military training in the past, including those orphaned by war.

Unlike in some African countries, where children have been abducted and then forced into training and combat, those in the southern Philippines learn to use weapons because they live in communities where combatants live with their families, he said.

Coomaraswamy acknowledged that the more complex situation of child soldiers in the southern Philippines is a challenge for the UN, and said the world body will have to work with communities to address the problem.