MANILA, Philippines?China?s strong protest over the Philippine Archipelagic Baselines Law may have given the Arroyo administration a fresh argument against efforts to scrap the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

Malacañang Monday cautioned lawmakers on the possible ?consequences? of abrogating the treaty with the United States in the wake of a brewing diplomatic dispute with Beijing.

?We respect the prerogative of Congress if they want to review the VFA,? said Lorelei Fajardo, deputy presidential spokesperson. ?We just have to be careful. We have to study the consequences of our action, especially now that China is protesting the baselines law.?

China has described the baselines law?which regards the disputed Kalayaan group of islands and the Scarborough Shoal as part of a ?regime of islands??as illegal.

Fajardo said the government was now working on a ?compromise? with the US over a Supreme Court decision ordering negotiations on where convicted rapist Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith should be detained.

In the meantime, Smith would remain at the US Embassy where he has been held after he was convicted of raping ?Nicole,? a Filipino woman, in 2006.

Fajardo sought to separate Nicole?s case from the wider issue of the abrogation of the VFA, now the subject of a Senate resolution authored by Sen. Francis Pangilinan.

?The VFA is not about Smith,? she said. ?We have not abandoned Nicole. We will be supporting her all the way. I?m sure that there will be some kind of a compromise agreement between the two countries so we can come to terms on what?s best for her.?

A Supreme Court ruling described as inconsistent with VFA provisions the 2006 executive agreement between Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo and US Ambassador Kristie Kenney covering Smith?s transfer from the Makati City jail to the US Embassy.

Meanwhile, at ceremonies for new graduates of the Philippine Military Academy at Fort Del Pilar in Baguio City Monday, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said US President Barack Obama?s recent telephone conversation with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo meant the United States wanted to make the VFA work.

Although he was not privy to what the two presidents discussed, Teodoro said the phone call ?reinforces the intention of the US to come to terms with us as partners? adding, however, that he could not tell if the call was triggered by the proposal to review the VFA.

Teodoro said the government was studying the benefits of both the VFA as well as the Mutual Defense Treaty, and that it preferred to strengthen the two agreements. The criminal jurisdiction or the custodial provision of the VFA was just one factor, he added.