Manila - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Tuesday announced a 25-million-peso (521,000-dollar) fund to help stop and resolve political killings in the country.

Arroyo also urged the country's more than 200 lawmakers to contribute 250,000 pesos each from their annual personal budgets to build the fund that would give cash rewards for information that would thwart political killings or identify masterminds.

"We want to erase the legacy of political violence that has haunted our nation for generations," she said in a statement. "We want to achieve a violence-free political culture in the Philippines once and for all."

"Hence, I am allotting an initial 25 million pesos for rewards to informants who provide information that foils political assassination attempts or leads to their solution, especially identification of their masterminds," she added.

According to the local human rights group Karapatan, nearly 1,000 people were victims of political killings in the Philippines from 2001 to 2008. The victims were mostly political activists, journalists, labour leaders and human rights workers.

Hundreds of people have also been killed in political feuds in the Philippines, especially during national elections.

In the latest polls in October 2007 when village and youth council officials were elected, 29 people were killed in election-related violence in the Philippines. (dpa)