MANILA, Philippines--A top official of the Moro Islamic Liberation expects attacks against government troops to completely stop after MILF leaders reprimanded their erring commanders and pacified impatient members following the recent breakthrough in the stalled peace talks.

"We're not only expecting a decline, but a stoppage in the attacks...we assure you," Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesperson told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) by phone.

Kabalu said there was an "explanation made to the few men on the ground" who were apparently made to understand the reasons for the stalled peace talks.

"There already was a meeting of the minds," he said.

In a separate interview over dzBB radio Sunday, Kabalu admitted that some of the skirmishes with government forces in June were instigated by some "hotheads" in the group who had become impatient over the impasse in the peace talks.

These MILF commanders and members have been "pacified," he said in Filipino.

"We understand the legitimacy of their demands but we came with a timely explanation to them, added to the fact that there was this agreement reached last week," Kabalu said.

The MILF launched 40 attacks against government troops in May and June alone and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Alexander Yano had appealed to the MILF leadership to "show control over recalcitrant and wayward elements within the MILF."

The Armed Forces of the Philippines over the weekend expressed optimism the security situation in Mindanao would "dramatically improve" following the breakthrough reached last week by the GRP-MILF panels on the contentious ancestral domain issue.

"We expect that the formal negotiations would resume soon and, after four decades, lasting peace is finally coming to Mindanao," AFP spokesperson Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres Jr. had said in a statement.

The peace talks had stalled because of the ancestral domain issue but are expected to resume after the Philippine government and MILF reached a breakthrough last week when the two panels agreed to drop the word "freedom" in reaching a deal to create an ancestral homeland for three million Muslims in Mindanao.

The panels settled on the phrase "aspirations of the Bangsamoro people" in an executive meeting on July 16 in Kuala Lumpur. The agreement earlier said "aspirations of the Bangsamoro for freedom."

But Presidential Peace Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said the wording on ancestral domain would still have to be discussed once the peace talks resume.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is expected to get the consensus of the Cabinet on the government's peace package with the MILF in an executive meeting on Tuesday at a military camp in Maguindanao.

Government sources said Arroyo might officially announce a breakthrough in the peace process during her visit.

Peace and poverty alleviation will be the primary agenda of the Cabinet meeting to be held at the 6th Army Infantry Division headquarters in Awang, Maguindanao, officials said.

Undersecretary Virgilio Leyretana, who is also chairman of the Mindanao Economic Development Authority, said the silted Mindanao river system might also be discussed since it is a major factor affecting food production.

Arroyo is set to visit Tuesday the Regional Executive Office of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) where she and her Cabinet would be received by regional counterparts led by Gov. Zaldy Uy Ampatuan.

Before this, the President will attend Monday a meeting of the Central Mindanao Regional Development Council hosted by the National Economic and Development Authority as well as government agencies and local government units in Polomolok, South Cotabato.