Manila  - The European Union (EU) has allocated 3.9 million euros (5.7 million dollars) to help the Philippine government speed up the prosecution of suspects in political killings in the country, a diplomat said Thursday.

Ambassador Alistair MacDonald, head of the European Commission delegation in the Philippines, said the money would fund a programme to provide training, advise and support for investigations and prosecution of political killings.

"The programme will help all stakeholders in the Philippines to work together to bring an end to extra-legal killings and enforced disappearances of political activists, journalists, trade unionists or farmers' representatives, and to identify and bring to justice the perpetrators," he said.

MacDonald and Philippine Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita signed Thursday the agreement for the EU-Philippine Justice Support Programme.

"Today's signature of the financing agreement confirms the willingness of the EU and of the Philippines to work together even in sensitive areas such as governance, reflecting the spirit of partnership which we have built up over the years," MacDonald said.

He noted that while the incidence of political killings has declined since 2007, it was "regrettable" that there had been so few convictions related to these murders.

The technical assistance grant was signed two years after the EU dispatched an experts team to investigate the spate of political killings in the Philippines.

According to the local human rights group Karapatan, more than 1,000 people have become victims of political killings in the Philippines since 2001. The victims were mostly political activists, journalists, labour leaders and human rights workers.(dpa)