Muslim rebels say no to the Philippines...

Why bother negotiating?

Muslim rebels waging a 32-year war in the southern Philippines on Wednesday said a peace deal with President Gloria Arroyo's administration was unlikely, after rejecting its latest offer.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said the government's proposal made when talks in Malaysia resumed last month, was "unacceptable", the group's negotiator, Mohagher Iqbal, told AFP.

"There was nothing in their draft comprehensive compact agreement that is worth considering at this stage," Iqbal said.

In Manila's proposal, the government offered to share power in areas such as tax collection and control of natural resources the MILF considers as its "ancestral domain" on the southern island of Mindanao.

Iqbal, however, dismissed the proposal as a resurrection of two previous offers under which "government would continue to rule the lives of the Muslims".

"What we want is a real state and sub-state relationship where we can have real governance and control over our lives," Iqbal said. "We don't want to be a mere token administrative arm for the region."