Manila - Rescuers on Tuesday dug up four more bodies from the rubble of two weekend landslides that struck a mining village in the southern Philippines, bringing the death toll to 20.

Nineteen people were still missing in the landslides in Masara village in Maco town, Compostela Valley province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, Mayor Voltaire Rimando said.

Rimando said 23 people were also injured in the landslides, which struck Saturday and Sunday after days of continuous heavy rains.

About 45 homes built on the foothills of a mountain were destroyed when tons of mud and boulders crashed into Masara.

Manila - The Philippine government on Tuesday ordered an investigation into the killings of six civilians during an air assault on Muslim separatist rebels in a southern province.

The civilians, including children and a pregnant woman, were on their way to an evacuation area when their motorboat was hit Monday by rockets fired from a military helicopter gunship.

Prague - Philippine Foreign Minister Alberto Romulo said Monday that he hopes for a peace deal between the Philippine government and Muslim rebels in the country's south by the end of the year.

"I am an optimist," he said after meeting his Czech counterpart Karel Schwarzenberg in Prague. "After we overcome administrative difficulties, we'll have peace."

Romulo said that the rebels were also tired of fighting and there was "a mutual desire" for a solution to the conflict lasting for decades.

Davao City, Philippines - The death toll in two landslides in a mining village in the southern Philippines rose to 14 as rescuers on Monday found more bodies beneath the mud and debris.

At least 16 people were still missing in Masara village in Maco town in Compostela Valley province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, the regional civil defence office said.

Antonio Cloma, operations chief of the regional civil defence office, said rescuers were racing against time in digging through the rubble in hopes of finding survivors.

"We are expecting to find more people buried in the mud, and we have to get them out immediately," he said.

Cloma said four bodies were recovered from the mud and debris Monday morning.

Manila - The chief of the Philippines' Armed Forces warned Monday that Muslim rebels might resort to terrorism amid an intensified military offensive against them in the southern region of Mindanao.

The military launched the offensive against two factions of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) after the rebels attacked several towns in Mindanao last month, killing nearly 200 people and displacing more than 500,000 residents.

Manila - Six people were killed and seven others missing when a landslide struck a mining village in the southern Philippines, local officials said Sunday.

At least 13 homes were buried in the landslide in Masara village in Maco town, Compostella Valley province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, on Saturday.

Provincial social worker Josephine Frasco said three days of continuous heavy rains triggered the landslide.