Cotabato City, Philippines (dpa) - Philippine police have recovered a homemade bomb outside an elementary school in a southern province, a regional military spokesman said Friday.

Major Armand Rico said police officers found the explosive device late Thursday near the gate of the school in Carmen town in North Cotabato province, 960 kilometres south of Manila.

Cotabato City, Philippines - A senior Red Cross official urged on Saturday government troops and Muslim guerrillas to spare civilians in the escalating hostilities in the southern Philippines.

Dominik Stillhart, International Committee of the Red Cross deputy director for operations, met Saturday with some of the more than 500,000 civilians displaced in the fighting between soldiers and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the southern region of Mindanao.

Cotabato City, Philippines - A homemade bomb was found Friday in an elementary school in the southern Philippines, where security has been stepped up in the aftermath of intense fighting between government forces and Muslim rebels.

The bomb was discovered by civilians in one of the buildings of the public school in Mlang town in North Cotabato province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, said Major Armand Rico, a regional military spokesman.

"Many pupils were already at the school," he said.

Cotabato City, Philippines  - Three people were killed as fighting between government troops and Muslim secessionist rebels intensified in the southern Philippines, a senior military official said Monday.

Lieutenant General Rodrigo Maclang, armed forces deputy chief of staff, said one army soldier and two Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels were killed in the fighting that flared Sunday in North Cotabato province, 930 kilometres south of Manila.

Cotabato City, Philippines - Muslims in an autonomous region in the southern Philippine voted on Monday for their leaders as government troops and Islamic secessionist rebels clashed in a nearby province.

Jose Melo, chairman of the Commissions on Elections, said polling precincts opened on time with little violence and disruptions in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and voter turnout appears to be very good.

The region is composed of the provinces of Maguindanao, Sharif Kabunsuan, Lanao del Sur, Tawi-Tawi, Sulu and Basilan. It has a total population of more than 4.1 million and some 1.6 million registered voters.

Cotabato City, Philippines - Sporadic fighting between Philippine troops and Muslim separatist rebels delayed the planned withdrawal of guerrillas who occupied several villages in a southern province, a military officer said Saturday.

Brigadier General Reynaldo Sealana said the rebels were preparing to leave North Cotabato when they clashed with government militiamen in Dunguan village, which was designated as the guerrillas' point of exit to nearby Maguindanao province.