MANILA, November 24, 2009 (AFP) - A powerful clan suspected of organising the massacre of 46 people in the southern Philippines has pledged to cooperate in an official inquiry, a senior aide to President Gloria Arroyo said Tuesday.

Special Arroyo envoy Jesus Dureza said he met with the Ampatuan family a day after its gunmen allegedly shot dead members of a rival clan and a number of journalists who were ensnared in the feud.

The governor of Maguindanao province and the patriarch of the clan, Andal Ampatuan, told Dureza that his family would take part in an official inquiry, the Arroyo aide told the ABS-CBN television network.

"They (Ampatuan clan) have assured us that they will cooperate in the investigation," Dureza said.

"They will submit themselves to the appropriate investigation."

However Dureza avoided directly answering a question as to whether Ampatuan had admitted that any member of his clan had been involved in the massacre.

Dureza said he had met with the Ampatuan clan to secure their help in an investigation, not to accuse them.

The Ampatuans are an extremely powerful political force in Maguindanao, and are members of President Gloria Arroyo's ruling Lakas Kampi CMD coalition, but Dureza insisted this would not affect the government's quest for justice.

Dureza, Arroyo's adviser for southern Philippines affairs, said he also met separately with the victims' clan led by Esmael Mangudadato, whose wife was among those abducted and killed.

Mangudadato had announced plans to contest the Maguindanao governor's post against Ampatuan's son in next year's national elections.