Government negotiators decided to ''defer the resumption of formal talks until this prejudicial issue is satisfactorily resolved,'' said Howard Dee, chief of the government panel.

The talks were scheduled to resume in the Netherlands on Sept. 11 after being stalled in March because then President Fidel Ramos did not approve a comprehensive agreement on human rights and international humanitarian laws.

Ramos's successor, Joseph Estrada, approved the accord last month, paving the way for the resumption of the talks on ending nearly three decades of insurgency.

Dee said in a statement that the government wants to implement the agreement in a way that will not impinge on the Philippine constitution.

Earlier this week, Luis Jalandoni, chief negotiator for the Marxist umbrella group, the National Democratic Front, issued a statement instructing rebel forces to implement the human rights agreement according to their own rules and practices in areas under their control.

Dee said such a directive was a direct challenge to the sovereignty of the republic and reflects the rebels' claim to their own separate ''constitutional sovereignty.''

The government has maintained that the insurgency is an internal conflict among Filipinos and that rebel forces should not be granted a status of belligerency that would give them the rights of a separate state.

Rebel spokesmen were not immediately available for comment. The human rights agreement aims to ease the burden of the armed conflict, particularly on children, women and the elderly.

The accord also supports the indemnification of 9,539 Filipinos who won a class action suit for human rights abuses under the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

When they resume the talks, the two panels are to craft an agreement on economic and social reforms, the second of four accords leading ultimately to a political settlement of the 29-year-old insurgency.

The two other agreements are to cover political and constitutional reforms and the disposition of armed forces.

AP