MANILA, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The United States will hold full-scale joint military exercises with the Philippines in February after drastically scaling down the annual event last year because of a row over a U.S. Marine jailed for rape. About 6,000 U.S. soldiers will take part in the exercises,, which will be held near strongholds of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines, military chief General Hermogenes Esperon said. Last year, Washington scaled down the war games, sending only 400 soldiers after a row over custody of the marine convicted of rape in December 2006. U.S. forces routinely train and advise Philippine military units, build roads, bridges, schools, clinics and conduct other humanitarian activities as part of joint efforts with Washington's closest ally in the region to fight Muslim militants. Esperon said 5,000 to 6,000 U.S. troops would take part in the Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) manoeuvres in the central region of Mindanao. About 2,000 Filipino soldiers would also participate in field training exercises, table-top simulations, and humanitarian and civil affairs activities in poor Muslim communities. The area is the stronghold of the MILF, which is holding peace talks with Manila after a ceasefire took effect in 2003. "Our two armies usually test our preparedness against all sorts of security threats," Esperon told foreign correspondents late on Monday. The war games were not directed at any particular enemy, he said. Balikatan is a large-scale conventional exercise to rehearse the two countries' defence plan against foreign aggression based on the 1951 Mutual Defence Treaty, one of the remaining vestiges of Cold War alliances in the region. "We have agreed with our U.S. counterparts to hold medical, dental and veterinary clinics in poor Muslim communities in the central Mindanao region," Esperon added. He said counter-terrorism activities would also be held on the southern island of Jolo, a bastion of one of Southeast Asia's deadliest Islamic militant groups, the Abu Sayyaf. Some Indonesian jihadists are also believed to be hiding there since 2003. (Reporting by Manny Mogato; editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Roger Crabb)
Palestinian girls hold candles during a demonstration in the West Bank city of Nablus against Israel's blockade of Gaza January 24, 2008. Israel wants to cut its links with the Hamas-controlled ...
