Security tight ahead of ASEAN meetings in Manila

MANILA (AFP) - More than 6,000 police and military personnel have been drafted into Manila as delegates begin to arrive for the 40th ASEAN ministerial meeting, the country's deputy head of police said Wednesday.

Despite tensions in the country's restive south, where the military were preparing to launch an assault on Muslim rebel positions, the deputy director of police, General Avelino Razon, told a media briefing that he did not see any security threats in the nation's capital.

"We are monitoring the situation in Mindanao and Basilan and don't see any spillover on the streets of Manila," he said.

Delegates have already started to arrive for the 40th meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum.

"We have 6,533 police and units from the military who will ensure that security around the meeting is tight," Razon said.

Almost 6,000 people have fled their homes on the southern island of Basilan to avoid a feared clash between Muslim rebels and soldiers hunting for the killers of 14 Marines, 10 of whom were beheaded.

Despite reports that police recently broke an Abu Sayyaf sleeper cell in Manila, diplomatic sources have expressed "some concern" that should there be a major offensive in Basilan during the ASEAN meetings, which begin on Saturday and end on August 2, there could be a backlash in Manila.

A security cordon has been thrown around the main venue, the Philippine International Convention Centre in Manila Bay, with all streets blocked to unauthorised traffic.

Sniffer dogs have been brought in to check cars for weapons and explosives.

The ASEAN heads of government meeting on the central Philippine island of Cebu last December was thrown into chaos when a number of foreign embassies issued travel alerts warning of a "possible" terrorist threat.

The summit of the 10-nation bloc was eventually cancelled due to the approach of a typhoon.

The meeting was resumed in January with most heads of government attending.