The negotiations near Oslo are aimed at ending the 42-year insurgency, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Talks got under way just hours after the arrest of a top guerrilla leader.

Allan Jazmines, a member of the central committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) was charged with murder and rebellion, officials said.

The CPP and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA), launched their insurgency in 1969.

About 4,700 NPA rebels continue to fight, mainly in the poorest areas of the Philippines.

For more than 25 years, successive Philippine administrations have held peace talks with the rebels via their Netherlands-based political arm, the National Democratic Front.

The last peace talks, under former President Gloria Arroyo, failed when the CPP and the NPA were placed on US and EU terrorist lists - a move they suspected Mrs Arroyo of instigating.

The talks facilitated by Norway are not expected to produce immediate results but both sides may agree to hold more talks and extend a ceasefire.