MANILA, Philippines -- Backtracking on its earlier position, Malacañang on Wednesday said it would make public the report of the Melo Commission?s investigation into the extrajudicial killings in the country.

Copies of the report will be made available by Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye starting Thursday, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said at his weekly press briefing.

The announcement came the same day United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Philip Alston released his preliminary report on his 10-day visit to the country to conduct his own investigation into the killings.

Alston had criticized the Palace refusal to release the Melo Commission?s report, a move the UN investigator called an ?essential first step? to convince leftists who have snubbed the Malacañang-created panel?s invitations to testify and cooperate in its probe.

Even before this, the administration had already come under fire from several quarters, including media, for its refusal to make the Melo report public.

Ermita insisted that the Melo report was ?preliminary? and incomplete because it does not include the testimonies of the families of victims and of militant groups, ?but because of [the] clamor this [report] will be made available."

But in his report, Alston called Malacañang?s justification for not making the Melo report public ?unconvincing.?

Human rights organizations say extrajudicial killings, which they blame mostly on state security forces, have claimed more than 830 lives since 2001, when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came to power.

At a press conference to wind up his investigation of the killings, Alston said many of the murders could be ?convincingly attributed? to the military.