Manila - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Friday that it approved a total of 10.5 billion dollars in loans in 2008, the highest in its 42-year history.

The Manila-based bank said the rise in loans reflected the region's ever-increasing demand for assistance to deal with the impact of the global economic crisis.

Manila- Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has urged Myanmar's ruling junta to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi next month to boost reconciliation efforts, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Friday.

Arroyo made the appeal during a meeting with Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein on the sidelines of the 14th Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Pattaya, Thailand, on April 10, the department said in a statement.

Manila  - A communist rebel was killed in a clash with government troops in an eastern Philippine town, a military report said Friday.

The report said the fighting erupted Thursday when patrolling troops encountered the guerrillas in a remote village in Esperanza town in Masbate province, 390 kilometres south of Manila.

The troops also recovered an assault rifle left behind by the fleeing rebels, it added.

Manila  - The United States is ready to provide assistance to the Philippines in its efforts to free Italian and Swiss Red Cross personnel seized by Muslim militants on a southern island, a US embassy diplomat said Thursday.

"We stand ready to help our Philippine counterparts with whatever they might request, of course," Thomas Gibbons, US deputy ambassador and political affairs counsellor, told reporters at the opening ceremony for annual US-Philippine military training exercises.

Manila  - A 60-year-old Belgian man killed his 37-year-old Filipino wife and then shot himself in a fit of jealous rage in a northern Philippine town, a police officer said Thursday.

Constant Van Girt allegedly shot dead his wife Rosaly during a heated argument inside their house in Iguig town in the northern province of Cagayan on Wednesday.

Senior Inspector Wilfredo Dupaya said that after killing his wife, Van Girt shot himself.

The couple was rushed to hospital, but Van Girt was declared dead on arrival. Rosaly died two hours later.