President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is set to meet with Malaysian Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak at the sidelines of the summit to ask his government’s help to forge an interim peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) before her term expires on June.

Arroyo left for the 16th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Leaders’ Summit last Thursday.

Chief government peace negotiator Rafael Seguis expressed confidence that the forging of the final peace agreement will “possibly” be achieved before the President leaves the presidency on June 30.

“We'll ask (them) to continue helping us conclude an interim agreement on governance under the peace compact,” Seguis said, in an ambush interview before the Philippine delegation flew to Vietnamese capital of Hanoi via chartered Philippine Airlines flight. Malaysia has been brokering the peace talks between the Philippines and the Muslim rebels.

He said to push for the interim deal, the government panel will be forming task teams or technical working group that would work on the “process of arriving at conclusion” of the final peace agreement.

Seguis said the interim pact, which will be the prelude to the final peace agreement, seeks to address issues on the legislative and constitutional processes.

Asked how far the interim deal from the final peace pact, he said: “We could not have a final pact at this time. It will take some time, but its part under the comprehensive compact.”

He said they wanted to “preserve the gains” they have achieved in the past years since they resumed talks in Kuala Lumpur, including the ceasefire agreement, the Tripoli agreement of 2001, the agreement on International Monitoring Team, and the International Contact Group for the GRP-MILF Peace Process.