COTABATO CITY, Philippines -- Peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) could resume anytime in July, Malacañang's chief negotiator, Rafael Seguis, said.

Seguis said the government and the MILF were ready to return to the negotiating table almost a year after the talks ground to a halt due to a botched territory deal and MILF raids on civilian communities in Central Mindanao.

Seguis said the reconstitution of the International Monitoring Team (IMT), tasked to monitor the ceasefire between the military and MILF fighters, started recently.

Both panels also agreed on the need for "international guarantors," he said.

But Seguis did not say when the talks would actually start, adding that it would depebd on the help of Malaysia, which facilitates the negotiations.

Malaysia had served as host of previous talks between the government and the Moro rebel group. It also headed the 60-man IMT.

"We are just waiting for the go-signal of the Malaysian government," Seguis said.

He said he has been going around Mindanao, meeting with the major stakeholders in the peace process.

Seguis said the role of various stakeholders has been and would continue to be important in efforts to build a much durable peace in Mindanao.

"It was President Macapagal-Arroyo's desire that a final peace accord could be inked by both panels before her tenure as head of state expires in 2010," he said.

Seguis also told ARMM Governor Zaldy Ampatuan that solving the MILF rebellion would be the key to the region's progress, ARMM Executive Secretary Oscar Sampulna said.

According to Sampulna, Seguis also told Ampatuan that the President gave him and the government panel "complete authority" in the talks with the MILF.

Quoting Ampatuan, Sampulna said the people of the ARMM would support any agreement with the MILF, if done with transparency.

"This time, we have to be transparent, allowing all stakeholders the opportunity to get involved through peaceful means," he quoted Ampatuan as saying.

Sampulna said that as a response to Seguis' announcement, Ampatuan organized a technical working group that would oversee issues concerning the peace initiatives in the ARMM.

These include efforts to put a halt to the 10-month old fighting that already ravaged Maguindanao, he said.

The botched agreement in 2008, the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), would have expanded the ARMM into the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE).