Manila - Five people were killed when unidentified gunmen attacked a convoy of a town deputy mayor in the southern Philippines, officials said Saturday.

Vice Mayor Wilson Nadang was unhurt in the ambush which happened Friday in Santo Nino village near Tukuran, a town in the province Zamboanga del Sur, 810 kilometres south of Manila.

Nadang, who is deputy mayor of the nearby town Labangan, told a local radio station that five of his security escorts were killed in a gunbattle with the attackers.

Police said initial investigation showed the incident could have been a "misencounter" between Nadang's security escorts and government security forces manning a checkpoint.

Manila  - Fighting between Muslim separatist rebels and government troops in the southern Philippines escalated Friday as peace talks between the guerrillas and the government crumbled, a regional army spokesman said.

Sporadic clashes were reported in seven towns in Maguindanao province, 960 kilometres south of Manila, where 16 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas and one soldier have been killed in the past three days.

Manila - Two government soldiers were wounded Thursday in clashes with Muslim separatist rebels in the southern Philippines, where hostilities have killed 102 people and displaced nearly 150,000 residents since last week.

The fighting occurred in Damatulan village in Midsayap town, North Cotabato province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, one of five towns occupied by Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels last week.

Manila - The Philippine government Wednesday dumped a controversial land deal with Muslim secessionist rebels amid strong opposition even from close allies of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said the government will renegotiate the ancestral domain agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), that would have included an additional 735 villages into the existing six-province Muslim autonomous region on strife-torn Mindanao island.

Manila - A 72-year-old woman was killed Wednesday as a powerful typhoon slammed into the northern Philippines, triggering landslides and flashfloods.

The woman was buried in a landslide in Benguet province, 225 kilometres south of Manila, the provincial disaster-coordinating council said.

Classes have been suspended at schools in Manila and northern provinces because of heavy rains and strong winds brought by Typhoon Nuri, which was packing maximum sustained winds of 140 kilometres per hour and gusts of up to 170 kph.

Cotabato City, Philippines - A Philippine Army officer was wounded Wednesday in fresh clashes with Muslim secessionist rebels in the country's south, where 102 people have been killed and nearly 150,000 displaced since last week, a military report said.

The fighting erupted when patrolling soldiers encountered about 30 heavily armed Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao province, 930 kilometres south of Manila.

Fighting was ongoing and soldiers were using mortars and howitzers to flush out the rebels, the military report said.