"Both peace panels are willing to resume formal negotiations and push forward the peace process," Jose Yap, governor of Tarlac province and a senior consultant of the government peace panel, said in an interview with The Philippine Star newspaper published Sunday.

Yap, together with House Speaker Jose de Venecia and government chief peace negotiator Silvestre Bello III, left for Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on Wednesday to meet with NDF leaders Jose Ma. Sison and Luis Jalandoni and other rebel negotiators who have been living in self-exile in the Netherlands.

He said Sison and other rebel leaders "are receptive to the government panel's initiative to jumpstart the stalled peace talks."

The government suspended formal peace talks with the NDF in Norway in June 2001 after its military wing, the New People's Army(NPA) assassinated two lawmakers.

Yap said their mission was President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's response to the Norwegian government's expression of willingness early this month to continue hosting and facilitating the peace process.

However, Yap would not disclose details about their initial meetings with the rebel leaders.

Just on the eve of the exploratory talks, the NPA rebels attacked a military detachment in the central province of Eastern Samar on Thursday, killing 17 people.

The 10,000-strong NPA, listed as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union as well as the Philippine government, has been waging insurgency since 1969 in the remote areas in the country.

(Xinhua News Agency June 29, 2003)