Cotabato City, Philippines - Philippine troops killed three Muslim rebels in a firefight in a southern province, an army spokesman said Tuesday.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Ponce said the clash occurred Monday in the village of Balunan in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao province, 960 kilometres south of Manila.

Ponce said troops were on patrol when they encountered about 20 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels, triggering a 30-minute firefight.

"We fired mortars towards their position to drive the rebels away," he said. "The bodies of the three slain guerrillas were recovered along with rockets and mortars."

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu confirmed the clash, but he alleged that the military started the fighting when troops attacked two villages using OV-10 planes.

Ponce denied the allegations.

The MILF is the largest Muslim separatist rebel group fighting for an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines.

Fighting has been on and off between the military and the MILF in the southern Philippines since August 2008 when the rebels launched a series of deadly attacks in several villages.

Nearly 300 people were killed and more than 500,000 displaced in the rebel attacks and subsequent fighting between the MILF and the Philippine military.(dpa)