A senior Moro rebel commander and 20 of his men surrendered to troops in the southern Philippines Monday, the military said, apparently because they did not want to go on fighting.

Mabaning Andamun Lucsadato is the highest ranking member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to have surrendered to the government since fighting broke out last August over a failed peace settlement, the military said.

Lucsadato and his men turned over a cache of weapons including rocket launchers and automatic rifles to the army's regional brigade headquarters in southern Lanao del Norte province on Mindanao island, the military said.

It said they had chosen to surrender because they wanted to give up the fight for an independent Islamic state.

Lucsadato is believed to have provided supplies and augmented the forces of MILF commander Abdullah Macapaar, alias Commander Bravo, in running gunbattles with soldiers last year.

Bravo and another MILF commander led a series of deadly attacks across southern Mindanao island in August last year, leaving scores dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.

The attacks led to a suspension of peace talks between the MILF and the government.

"This is a welcome development and an honorable thing for them to do," brigade commander Colonel Benito de Leon said in a statement.

The 12,000-strong MILF has been fighting for an independent Islamic state in Mindanao since 1978.

Earlier Monday, suspected MILF rebels allegedly trying to sabotage the turnover ceremony bombed a vital bridge in the area, though there were no casualties.