The first group of Malaysian peacekeepers left the Philippines on Saturday as peace talks between the government and Muslim rebels were stalled.

The stalled talks raised fears that clashes could escalate again in the troubled south.

Malaysian Maj. Gen. Datuk Mat Yasin Bin Mat Daud _ leader of an international monitoring team _ said he hopes a peace agreement will be signed soon. The withdrawal is a sign of Kuala Lumpur's impatience with the slow pace of negotiations that it has brokered to try to bring an end to more than 30 years of Muslim separatist insurgency.

"As far as I am concerned, our mission is accomplished. We have left that good foundation for peace," the Malaysian general told reporters shortly before boarding a Malaysian military transport plane in Datu Odin Sinsuat, the capital of Shariff Kabunsuan province.

The departing 29 Malaysians represent half of the peacekeeping force, and the other 12 Malaysians are to depart Aug. 31. There also are contingents from Brunei and Libya, plus one Japanese aid worker.

Rebel negotiators walked away from a meeting in December to protest Manila's insistence on keeping any accord within the Philippine constitution.

The Malaysian facilitator of the talks, Othman Abdul Razak, has said that if Manila "wants to stick to the constitution, things will not move."

Rodolfo Garcia, the chief government negotiator, tried to allay fears that the Malaysians' departure would trigger renewed fighting between government troops and the 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front, or MILF.

"I am very confident that the situation on the ground" will remain stable, he told The Associated Press. He said some peacekeepers remain and that a joint military-MILF cease-fire committee continues to function.

Garcia said the rebels and the military hope to avoid bloodshed and "want the peace talks to proceed and let this problem be resolved peacefully."

Garcia's rebel counterpart, Mohagher Iqbal, was less optimistic, saying the situation "is very fluid," especially on the main southern island of Mindanao, where most MILF forces are based.

Iqbal said the arrival of peace monitors in 2004 reduced the level of violence to "nearly zero."

"It follows that if they withdraw, the possibility of violence flaring up in Mindanao is greater," he said.

Iqbal said that as a revolutionary organization operating outside the constitution, the MILF cannot be constrained by the legal system.

"We are not telling them to violate their constitution. On our part, what we want is to reach an agreement. How they will make it legal is up to them," he said.