Manila (AsiaNews) - For President Arroyo "interreligious dialogue is the only solution for peace and stability in Mindanao”, a Muslim majority region for 40 years the scene of war between Islamic rebels of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Filipino military. Arroyo's intervention was part of a two day summit on Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace and Development organized by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which ended yesterday in Manila. Beginning on March 16 the NAM meeting brought together delegations of 118 developing countries including India, Iran and Pakistan.

Glorya Arroyo said: ""We have reached within the affected communities to change the peace paradigm, to change it into a combination of soft and hard power, not just a military solution".

In recent years the conflict between the army and MILF has affected Christians and Muslims causing over 750 thousand displaced and thousands of deaths. During the war, the military have been accused of human rights violations and of fuelling the violence in order to pursue their business related to arms trafficking.

The government and Islamic rebels resumed talks on 4 March, thanks to the combined action of the Catholic Church and Islamic leaders, who for 20 years have been working with the Muslim population - through Furum of the Christian bishops and Ulema and Silsilah, a movement for Muslim-Christian dialogue founded by Fr Sebastiano D'Ambra (PIME). They also welcomed the meeting organized by NAM defining it as a sign of hope for the world and the Philippines.

NAM was born in 1961 at the initiative of then Yugoslav leader Tito, in an attempt to bring together non-aligned countries on the two fronts of the Cold War. Composed of 25 members at the beginning, the organization now involves 118 countries in Asia, South America and Africa.