KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) -- The Philippines is hoping to sign a peace deal with Muslim separatists well before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan which falls in September, Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said Tuesday.

The deal would end the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's (MILF) fight for a separate state in the southern island of Mindanao, where they have been waging a bloody rebellion since 1978.

"I believe before Ramadan, which is in September. Hopefully even long before Ramadan," Romulo said when asked when he expected an outcome for the MILF talks.

Romulo told reporters at a meeting here of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) grouping of mostly developing countries that the two sides were working on the issue of ancestral domain, or traditional Muslim lands.

Peace talks with the MILF are in the final stages, with both parties now firming up the details about how to handle ancestral domain, where the MILF will be entitled to a share of economic development.

The Philippines signed a ceasefire pact with the 12,00-strong MILF in 2003 ahead of peace talks.

The MILF has denounced its links with foreign Islamic militant groups, including the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) network, which has been blamed for deadly bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali in 2002 and last year.