ALEOSAN, Philippines (AFP) -- The threat of booby traps and new attacks by Muslim rebels are preventing thousands of villagers from returning to their war-ravaged homes in the southern Philippines, officials said Wednesday.

Although Muslim guerrillas have retreated from villages they occupied last week in the southern province of North Cotabato, troops were still encountering small pockets of resistance from the rebels.
Scores of homes in mainly poor rural villages have been either burned to the ground or looted and crops destroyed by the retreating rebels.
The military said that as the rebels retreated Tuesday and Wednesday they planted booby traps and land mines in deserted villages and roads.
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels occupied the villages last week after the Supreme Court halted the signing of an agreement that was meant to pave the way for a final political settlement to end the MILF's 30-year fight for an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines.
Some 160,000 people have been made homeless by the fighting according to the National Disaster Coordinating Council and the United Nations World Food Programme is transporting food into relief centers in the province.
Defense Secretay Gilberto Teodoro and other senior officials visited many of the evacuation centers Wednesday to assess the needs of the refugees.
""Addressing the concerns of the displaced remains our top priority,"" said national police spokesman Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome
MILF rebels began their retreat back into the hills on Tuesday after a prolonged military and police offensive that involved helicopter gunships and artillery.
Bartolome said the rebels had planted booby traps in farms and villages as they retreated.
He said government forces were on guard for MILF attempts to occupy the highways in North Cotabato or to enter other areas which had been left unprotected.
Bartolome said some of the evacuees had started to check their properties but were not staying for fear the rebels would return.
Teodoro, who met with evacuated villagers, said both Christian and Muslim farmers were still in fear of the MILF who had burned houses, stolen farm animals and killed civilians during their incursion.
""We need food, we need clean water, we can't bear the hardship of being evicted from our homes. We need to live normal lives again,"" said 49-year-old farmer Edilberto Semera a refugee from Aleosan town.
Abdulwahid Adil, a 39-year-old Muslim farmer, said he could hardly sleep in the makeshift tent his family erected on a roadside.
""Me, my wife and four young children stay there waiting for food assistance but we cannot be in this situation for long,"" he said.
""It was so cold at night and so hot at daytime, this is how miserable our life has become because of the fighting,"" he said.