MANILA -- Philippine President Gloria Arroyo said she and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had reached an "understanding" on how to resolve the crisis over Kuala Lumpur's mass deportation of Filipino illegal migrants.

"We came to an understanding on how best to ease the situation affecting our countrymen," who are being deported from the Malaysian state of Sabah, Arroyo said in a statement issued on Saturday.

She said an official mission would be dispatched to Kuala Lumpur on Monday "to thresh out the details, AFP reported.

However she did not give the specifics of the plan.

Arroyo also appealed for "prudence, sobriety and reason" following the public outcry triggered by reports of alleged mistreatment of the Filipino deportees by the Malaysian authorities.

"There are also those who are trying to exploit the situation to serve their selfish ends, to erode our relations with Malaysia or to pursue political or terroristic ends inimical to the common interests of both our nations," Arroyo said.

Thousands of mostly-Muslim Filipino migrants have arrived in the southern Philippines in recent days following Malaysia's August 1 introduction of tough laws against illegal immigrants, including a mandatory six-month jail term and up to six strokes of the cane.

Social workers say three babies died during the mass deportation and many of those sent back suffered from dehydration and respiratory infections.

Legislators, activists and the media have voiced outrage at the alleged mistreatment of the deportees and some congressmen have urged Arroyo to revive a dormant Philippine claim to Sabah in retaliation. Arroyo however said "The Philippine claim to Sabah must be firmly delinked from the issue of deportees."

"We should not taint our actions with grandstanding or diplomatic adventurism," she said.

She appealed to the public and to civic groups to donate goods and funds to the deportees who are still arriving in the southern Philippines.

Earlier, Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye said she asked Mahathir to call a moratorium on deportations of Filipino illegal migrants but the president made no mention of this.

Arroyo called Mahathir on Friday after returning from a tour of the southern Philippines which included a meeting with a group of newly-arrived deportees.