By Joyce Pangco Pa?ares

ILIGAN CITY?Malaysia stays as mediator of the peace talks between the government and Muslim separatists, but only Brunei and Libya will remain in the international team monitoring the ceasefire between them, an official said here Tuesday.

?The [monitoring team] will come first, and then we can start the informal peace talks [with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front],? National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said.

He said he was leaving for Tripoli while Hermogenes Esperon Jr., the presidential adviser on the peace process, would fly to Brunei this month to finalize the extension of the stay of the monitoring team in Mindanao.

?Based on our calculation on the length of time we will need to revive the [monitoring team] and wrap up consultations with the key stakeholders, negotiations will likely resume in March,? Gonzales said after yesterday?s Cabinet meeting here.

Iligan had opposed the signing of an agreement that would have given the separatist MILF its own homeland in Mindanao, an agreement that the Supreme Court struck down in August last year for being unconstitutional.

The pact?s rejection prompted rogue MILF rebels to attack several towns in Central Mindanao, including Iligan City, President Arroyo?s hometown. The attacks left at least 60 civilians dead, forcing Mrs. Arroyo to suspend the peace talks indefinitely and to dissolve the government?s negotiating panel.

Gonzales said Libya, which has six ceasefire monitors in Iligan City, had committed to send 25 more. Brunei, which has 10, would add 30 more.

Government chief negotiator Rafael Seguis said the government had ?responded favorably? to the MILF?s demand that Malaysia be retained as mediator of the informal peace talks ?without discounting the possibility of other facilitators coming in.?

Gonzales said the government was eyeing Japan and Qatar as members of an economic monitoring group because they had development projects in Mindanao. Another group tasked to enforce the MILF?s disarmament and reintegration with society would likely include experts from the United Kingdom, Sweden, Spain and Germany.

?That [Malaysia as chief mediator] was the demand of the MILF, and we have to agree to that to move the peace talks forward,? Seguis said.

?We were initially eyeing other possible facilitators, but the MILF said they were willing to return to the negotiating table only if Malaysia stayed as facilitator [of the informal peace talks].?

The Cabinet wants the Organization of Islamic Conference to have a role in facilitating the peace talks with the MILF, saying it is not biased like Malaysia, which it feels has been favoring the separatists.

The OIC brokered the final peace agreement between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front, another separatist group, in 1996.