The leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which recently agreed to resume peace talks with the Philippine government, has died, the group said yesterday.

It was unclear what effect, if any, Salamat Hashim's death would have on the negotiations that are to be hosted by Malaysia.

His renunciation of terrorism in June was one of the key demands made by the government for talks to end the separatist group's decades-old campaign for a Muslim homeland in the country's troubled south.

Salamat was the group's founding chairman. MILF vice chairman for political affairs Ghazali Jaafar told The Associated Press by telephone that he died July 13 from complications from a heart ailment and an acute ulcer and was buried the same day by his comrades in the southern town of Butig in Lanao del Sur province.

Spreading the word

He said there was a delay in announcing the death because the MILF's central committee had to inform Salamat's relatives and choose a successor. After a weeklong meeting, the top leadership chose the rebel group's military chief of staff, Al Haj Murad, as the new MILF chairman, Jaafar said.

Jaafar called Salamat's death "a great loss to us," but said there will be no changes in the MILF's revolutionary policies, including its intention of pursuing a peaceful, political settlement of their rebellion.

"There will be no changes, we'll pursue the peace talks," Jaafar said. "The MILF remains committed to the peaceful settlement of the problem through negotiations."

Jaafar said the 12,000-strong rebel group was in the process of informing concerned parties about Salamat's death in connection with the peace negotiations.

Eduardo Ermita, presidential adviser for the peace process, expressed optimism that the talks would proceed smoothly despite Salamat's death, calling Murad a "very reasonable person."

The good rapport he has established with Murad during previous talks augurs well for the new negotiations, Ermita added.

Ermita said the two sides are expecting an invitation from Malaysia within days to proceed to Kuala Lumpur for peace talks. Malaysia had been waiting, he said, for the government and rebels to re-establish a cease-fire committee.

The government had issued arrest warrants for Hashim and four other top MILF leaders, each with a 5 million peso (US$94,340) bounty, stemming from murder charges over a string of bombings that have left more than 200 people, most of them civilians, dead this year. The rebels denied involvement, and the warrants were suspended as part of a deal to resume peace talks.

Negotiations have been stalled since 2001, most recently because of bombings and raids the government blamed on "terrorists" within the MILF's ranks. The guerrillas have been fighting for Muslim self-rule in the southern Mindanao region. The government is offering them autonomy, but not independence.

The reclusive Salamat's birth date was not immediately known, but he was born in the southern village of Kudal in Pagalungan town in Maguindanao province and pursued studies in Manila and in Cairo, Egypt, where he first started espousing revolutionary thought amid the appalling poverty gripping Muslims in the southern Philippines.

He returned to the Philippines and started organizing Muslim guerrillas. He decided to go underground on September 24, 1972 - four days after late dictator Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial-law rule amid worsening political and economic problems.

"We were together when we entered the jungle four days after martial law was declared," Jaafar said.

Salamat organized the Moro National Liberation Front in the early 1970s together with a Marxist student activist, Nur Misuari and other Muslim militants. Salamat had a falling out with Misuari in the late 1970s and formed a separate faction, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Salamat steered the MILF to its ideological moorings, drafting many of its rules, while remaining an active combatant, Jaafar said. Rebel commanders often had difficulty discouraging him from going to the battle frontlines.

Fluent in Arabic, Salamat developed strong connections with other Muslim groups and leaders, especially in the Middle East, that led to the international recognition of the MILF as a legitimate Islamic rebel group, he said.

The MNLF signed a peace accord with the government in September 1996. The MILF pursued a separatist rebellion, growing to become the country's largest Muslim rebel group.