The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said it would not return to the negotiating table on December 13, making the excuse that Ramadan begins on December 9.

The announcement came after the meeting planned for Monday between MILF leader Hashim Salamat and visiting Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid was cancelled amid security concerns and political opposition in Manila.

Wahid, who will take part in an East Asian summit in Manila this weekend, had offered to meet the rebel chief in a bid to help the Philippine government forge a peaceful settlement with the MILF.

Ghazali Jaafar, the rebels' vice-chairman for political affairs, did not link the decision to put off the peace talks to the canceling of the meeting with Wahid. But no new date has been set for the peace talks.

Jakarta helped broker a peace deal in 1996 between Manila and another Muslim group, the Moro National Liberation Front, from which the MILF had broken away.

The planned Wahid-Salamat meeting had been criticized in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines as meddling by Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, which also faces a separatist movement in its own province of Aceh.

On Friday, the MILF's Jaafar said Salamat would be willing to meet Wahid in Indonesia next year if invited.

Maj. Salih Indanan, military spokesman for the southern Philippines, where the MILF is based, said the armed forces had tightened security in anticipation of renewed attacks by the MILF before the start of Ramadan.

The separatists have traditionally refrained from armed offensives during the holy month of fasting and piety.

Sporadic fighting has already broken out in scattered southern areas between the MILF and government forces in the past weeks.

In Manila, Philippine President Joseph Estrada raised doubts about the MILF's sincerity, noting it was when an initial round of peace talks began last October 25 that the estimated 15,000-strong rebel group began launching attacks. "We have given them too much already," Estrada said, "this is why I have ordered the armed forces chief of staff to really contain them."

"They cannot increase the number of their camps. They must stay where they are until the end of the peace talks," he said of reported plans by the MILF to occupy more ground on the island of Mindanao.

Estrada cited vital infrastructure projects in the south that had been delayed by MILF attacks and said he had ordered the military chief, Gen. Angelo Reyes, to "protect them at all costs. Don't give an inch. Fight back."

Reyes, who joined Estrada's weekly radio address, said MILF members were trying to expand their territory to strengthen their position ahead of the peace talks.

Despite the recent fighting, Estrada said he would still likely order a traditional annual ceasefire over the Christmas season with both Muslim mujahedin and communist insurgents.

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