KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Moro separatists holding peace talks with the Philippine government Thursday said they would continue to pursue a landmark peace deal with the country's new administration.

Negotiators from the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest of the country's Muslim rebel groups, met in Kuala Lumpur for one-day talks on a pact to end decades of conflict.

"We are looking beyond the present administration," MILF negotiator Michael Mastura told AFP, when asked about the progress of the negotiations.

President Gloria Arroyo's term expires on June 30 and Malaysian facilitators of the talks have said it is unlikely that a deal will be reached before she steps down.

"We had frank and good exchanges. It is not an end game," Mastura said of Thursday's talks.

The meeting comes after 20 Malaysian-led peace monitors returned to the troubled southern Philippines on Sunday for the first time since the rebels launched a wave of deadly attacks in 2008.

The monitors first came to Mindanao in 2004, following the first major ceasefire between the two sides the previous year.

But they pulled out in September 2008 after the MILF launched attacks to avenge a court ruling that outlawed a proposed deal to give the rebels control over what they say is their ancestral land.

About 400 people were killed and 700,000 displaced at the height of the fighting, before a new ceasefire was signed last year.