MANILA, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Philippine negotiators have offered a fresh deal to the country's largest Muslim separatist group to help restart talks on ending nearly 40 years of conflict, a government official said on Saturday. Jesus Dureza, who is President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's adviser on the peace process, said the new initiative was sent on Friday to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) through the Malaysian government, which has brokered talks since March 2001. "We're hoping the rebels would accept the offer so we can return to the negotiating table," Dureza said, without giving any detail of the fresh initiative. "It will help the negotiations move forward. The rebels, who blamed Arroyo for the breakdown of the talks in Kuala Lumpur two months ago, said they will consider the government offer. "We'll study the new proposal carefully." Mohaqher Iqbal, MILF's chief negotiator, told reporters. "We can't make any comment until after we have studied the proposal." Negotiations have stalled since June because of differences over the size and wealth of a proposed homeland for about 3 million Muslims in the south of the mainly Catholic country. The MILF wants to add more than 1,000 villages to an existing five-province Muslim autonomous region in the resource-rich south without a referendum. The government has said it must put the demand to a popular vote. Many of the villages earmarked for membership of a Muslim homeland lie far from the existing autonomous region and are surrounded by Christian territory. More than 120,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
