Cotabato City, Philippines - Three Muslim separatist rebels and one government militiaman were killed in a clash in the southern Philippines, an army spokesman said Sunday. The firefight erupted when 25 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels stormed an outpost of government militiamen in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, on Saturday.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Ponce said the militiamen fought the rebels until soldiers arrived in armoured personnel carriers.

Manila - Philippine troops seized a cache of explosives allegedly intended for al-Qaeda-linked Muslim militants holding captive two European Red Cross workers on a southern island, a military spokesman said Saturday. The explosives were confiscated on Friday during a raid on the house of a man suspected to be supplying bomb materials to the Abu Sayyaf rebels in Jolo town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila.

Manila  - Environmental watchdog Greenpeace Thursday urged the Philippine government to prevent the passage of the largest-ever transport of reprocessed nuclear waste via the country's waters next month.

Greenpeace said a shipment of 1.8 tons of radiotoxic plutonium in mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel intended for nuclear power plants in Japan is travelling via the Cape of Good Hope and the south-west Pacific Ocean from France, where the cargo left on March 5.

Manila  - The Philippines plans to dispatch a team of 133 police officers to join a UN peacekeeping mission in East Timor, a police spokesman said Thursday.

Chief Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome said the officers scheduled to leave Manila on Friday and April 17 form the third police contingent that would be sent to East Timor.

"The Philippines continues to be the leading provider of police officers to the UN peacekeeping operations around the world," Bartolome said.

Zamboanga City, Philippines - A Philippine court on Wednesday ordered the release of seven people arrested for allegedly providing support to Muslim militants holding captive two European Red Cross workers.

The suspects - three police officers, two village captains and two alleged members of the Abu Sayyaf rebel group - were freed two days after police filed criminal charges of kidnapping for ransom and illegal detention against them.

Manila  - The Philippines on Wednesday mounted search and rescue operations for a missing air force helicopter carrying senior staff of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo amid reports that the chopper could have crashed and exploded.

The Bell 412 helicopter, carrying five passengers and two pilots, was on its way to Banaue town in Ifugao province, 270 kilometres north of Manila, from the nearby mountain resort city of Baguio when it went missing Tuesday.