Manila - One communist rebel was killed and another injured in a clash with government troops in an eastern Philippine province, an army spokesman said Monday.

Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner said the firefight erupted late Sunday in a remote village in Ligao City in Albay province, 375 kilometres south of Manila.

Brawner said soldiers recovered a pistol, a mobile telephone and a backpack from the slain rebel identified as Margie Belarde, 23.

Government troops did not suffer any casualty in the firefight.

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