Cotabato City, Philippines  - Three people were killed as fighting between government troops and Muslim secessionist rebels intensified in the southern Philippines, a senior military official said Monday.

Lieutenant General Rodrigo Maclang, armed forces deputy chief of staff, said one army soldier and two Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels were killed in the fighting that flared Sunday in North Cotabato province, 930 kilometres south of Manila.

Ten soldiers were also wounded in the fighting, which was continuing Monday morning, he said.

Maclang added that the remains of two slain MILF guerrillas have been recovered by government troops.

The Office of the Civil Defence said some 129,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in five towns in North Cotabato and were staying in 43 evacuation centres due to the hostilities.

Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said the five towns affected by the fighting were Pikit, Midsayap, Libungan, Aleosan and Pigkawayan.

"We have sufficient stocks of basic necessities for the evacuees," he said, adding "logistical planning" was being made to ensure steady flow of relief supplies.

"Operations will not stop until all the evacuees are back to their homes," Teodoro said.

The Philippine military on Sunday launched offensives to flush out the MILF rebels who occupied several villages in North Cotabato since last month, burning homes and seizing farm animals.

The rebel encroachment escalated last week after the Supreme Court halted the signing of a controversial Muslim homeland deal between the government and the MILF, which would have expanded an existing autonomous Muslim region in the southern Philippines.

The signing of the ancestral domain agreement would have been a crucial step towards resuming formal peace talks between the Philippine government and the MILF, which have been stalled since December.

Under the deal, the Philippines would hold a plebiscite in 2009 to expand the existing six-province Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to include an additional more than 700 villages. (dpa)