MANILA, Nov. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- The Philippine military has postponed a plan to cut its army divisions because of increasing clashes with the New People's Army leftwing guerrillas and Muslim rebels in the south, a military officer said on Wednesday.

    The Philippine Army chief Hermogenes Esperon said the intensified counterinsurgency campaign will target secessionist groups and insurgents, especially the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing New People's Army (NPA).

    "The plan to deactive two divisions was held in abeyance. Instead we're coming up with probably another two battalions so that our number could be equal to the tasks of combating threats to the nation, especially the CPP," Esperon said in an interview with the television network ANC.

    The CPP and NPA are both on the US government's list of foreign terrorist organizations, he noted.

    Earlier reports said the CPP Central Committee has ordered all rebel fronts to intensify attacks against the government to hasten the removal of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, already entangled in a power struggle with her opponents.

    The Philippine military lost 18 soldiers in the fighting with the NPA in the past two weeks, according to the military.

    Sporadic fightings are still going on in the southern island province of Sulu between government forces and Abu Sayyaf rebels.

    The NPA, an 8,000-strong guerrilla force, has been fighting government troops for nearly four decades, while the problem of Muslim insurgency, which is also decades-old, remains unsolved in the south. Enditem