Davao City, Philippines - Six soldiers were killed when a landmine planted by communist rebels exploded in the southern Philippines, an army battalion commander said Saturday.

Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Sequitin said the incident occurred Friday in a remote village near Mabini town in Compostela Valley province, 990 kilometres south of Manila.

Sequitin said victims were making preparations for a medical mission next month in the village when they tripped over the landmine, causing it to explode.

Manila - Fighting between government troops and Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines is not likely to escalate into a full-scale war, an international security think tank said Friday.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) said several factors, including lack of resources, "militate against the widening of the conflict" between security forces and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in the strife-torn southern region of Mindanao.

"The likelihood of full-scale war engulfing Mindanao seems low," the ICG said. "Neither side has the resources to engage in sustained combat.

Manila - Philippine shares slipped by 2.12 per cent on Friday as investors remained jittery over the continued volatility in the stock markets around the world.

The Philippine Stock Exchange's 30-share composite index shed 42.43 points to close at 1,953.49, from Thursday's finish of 1,995.92.

A total of 847.39 million shares valued at 1.95 billion pesos (39.95 million dollars) were traded.

Losers outpaced gainers, 92 to 23, with 24 issues unchanged.

Cotabato City, Philippines - An unmanned US spy plane crashed and exploded in a southern Philippine town where government troops were hunting down rogue Muslim rebels, a Catholic priest who witnessed the incident said Thursday.

The plane was flying low and smashed into a telecommunications tower Saturday in Pikit town in North Cotabato province, 960 kilometres south of Manila, Father Eduardo Vazquez said.

"It crashed into the tower at the town proper, and it exploded like a grenade," he said. "The police and the military do not want to talk about it, but many people saw the spy plane."

Vazquez said police immediately recovered the wreckage and turned it over to the military.

Manila - Philippine shares dropped by 4.63 per cent on Thursday as scared investors sold their stocks amid unabated decline in the Wall Street.

Manila - The United States Thursday pledged 40 million dollars to help save the Coral Triangle, the world's largest expanse of mangrove, coral reef and fish biodiversity, covering six nations.

US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney made the announcement at the on-going second Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) senior officials' meeting in Manila attended by representatives of East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands.

The CTI seeks to protect 6 million square kilometres of ocean and coasts that has been called the "Amazon of the Seas" for its biodiversity.