Manila - Fighting between government troops and Muslim separatist rebels in the southern Philippines, which has displaced nearly 160,000 people, were expected to end soon, a senior aide of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said Wednesday.

Presidential peace adviser Hermogenes Esperon said Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels were moving out of the villages they occupied in North Cotabato province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, due to intensified military airstrikes and ground assaults.

Esperon said the fighting would "come to an end pretty soon."

"There is no way we can give up peace," said Esperon, a former armed forces chief of staff who spent most of his military career fighting Muslim insurgents. "We must pursue peace."

At least 53 people, mostly MILF guerrillas, have been killed in three days of fighting that started Sunday and displaced 159,123 civilians.

Fighting subsided late Tuesday as MILF rebels were driven away from seven of 15 villages they forcibly occupied.

Military troops were continuing clearing operations on Wednesday, and authorities said they do not expect much resistance from the MILF rebels who have started to retreat.

The hostilities flared up Sunday after the Supreme Court stopped the signing of a Muslim homeland deal between the MILF and the Philippine government which would have expanded an existing six-province autonomous Muslim region.

Catholic politicians have alleged that the deal violated the constitution and would have ceded sovereignty over the southern Philippines to the Muslim rebels. They urged the high tribunal to declare the deal unconstitutional. (dpa)