Manila - The Philippines' inflation rate inched up to 7.3 per cent in February due to higher food and fuel prices, the government said Thursday.

The February index was up from 7.1 per cent in January and 5.4 per cent in the same month in 2008, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO).

The NSO said the higher inflation was "mainly due to the upward price adjustments in the heavily weighted food items, particularly rice, meat, corn and eggs."

Cotabato City, Philippines  - Three children were killed in the southern Philippines when a mortar accidentally exploded while they were playing with it, a military report said Wednesday.

Five more children were wounded in the explosion that occurred late Tuesday in Buldon town in Maguindanao province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, the report added.

The children were playing with an 81-millimetre mortar, which accidentally exploded inside a rice mill building.

Manila  - A communist rebel leader accused of directing the guerrillas' extortion activities in the central Philippines has been arrested, a military spokesman said Tuesday.

Eduardo Sarmiento, head of a regional communist party committee in the central region of Visayas, was apprehended on February 24 in Manila.

Brigadier General Guadencio Pangilinan said "high explosives" were seized from Sarmiento during his arrest by a joint team of police officers and army intelligence operatives.

Manila  - Thailand's armed forces chief on Tuesday invited the Philippine military to join annual multinational war exercises in Thailand with four other countries, including the United States.

General Songgitti Jaggabatara, chief of the Royal Thai Armed Forces, made the invitation during a meeting with his Philippine courterpat, General Alexader Yano.

Jaggabatara, who was in Manila for an introductory visit, said he was looking forward to the active participation of the Philippine armed forces in the annual Cobra Gold training.

The Philippines is currently a mere observer in the exercises, which are participated in by troops from Thailand, the US, Indonesia, Singapore and Japan.

Manila  - The Philippine military is open to allowing homosexuals join the service as long as they pass its rigid physical and mental requirements, armed forces officials said Tuesday.

Brigadier General Gaudencio Pangilinan, civil relations service chief, said the armed forces do not discriminate against homosexuals.

"If you are qualified, I guess we are not biased against the third sex," he said.

Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Torres, armed forces public affairs chief, said anybody who fulfills the basic requirements will be accepted in the military.

Cotabato City, Philippines - Eight Muslim separatist rebels were killed in a clash with government troops in the southern Philippines, an army spokesman said Tuesday.

The fighting occurred in the town of Kabuntalan in Maguindanao province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, on Monday, according to Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Ponce.

"At least eight MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) rebels were confirmed dead by our advance troops," he said.

Ponce said the guerrillas were the same group that clashed with troops in nearby Datu Piang town on Sunday, killing two soldiers.