Defense accord would let US military return to south-east Asian nation amid increasing tensions with China over territory

The United States and the Philippines have reached a 10-year pact that would allow a larger US military presence in this south-east Asian nation as it grapples with increasingly tense territorial disputes with China, White House officials said on Sunday.

Two Philippine officials confirmed the agreement to the Associated Press before the White House announcement.

The Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement would give American forces temporary access to selected military camps and allow them to preposition fighter jets and ships. It will be signed on Monday at the Department of Defense in the Philippine capital, Manila, before President Barack Obama arrives on the last leg of a four-country Asian tour, following earlier stops in Japan, South Korea and Malaysia.

A Philippine government primer on the defense accord that was seen by the AP did not indicate how many additional US troops would be deployed "on temporary and rotational basis", but it said that the number would depend on the scale of joint military activities to be held in Philippine camps.

The size and duration of that presence still has to be worked out with the Philippine government, said Evan Medeiros, senior director for Asian affairs at the White House's National Security Council.

Medeiros declined to say which specific areas in the Philippines are being considered under the agreement, but said the long-shuttered US facility at Subic Bay could be one of the locations.

The two Philippine officials spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the pact before it is signed.

The defense accord is a new milestone in the longtime treaty allies' relationship and would help address their respective dilemmas. The Philippines has struggled to bolster its territorial defence amid China's increasingly assertive behaviour in the disputed South China Sea. Manila's effort has dovetailed with Washington's intention to pivot away from years of heavy military engagement in the Middle East to Asia, partly as a counterweight to China's rising clout.

"The Philippines' immediate and urgent motivation is to strengthen itself and look for a security shield with its pitiful military," Manila-based political analyst Ramon Casiple said. "The US is looking for a re-entry to Asia, where its superpower status has been put in doubt."

The convergence would work to deter China's increasingly assertive stance in disputed territories, Casiple said. But it could also further antagonize Beijing, which sees such tactical alliance as a US strategy to contain its rise, and encourage China to intensify its massive military buildup, he said.

Hundreds of American military personnel have already been deployed in the southern Philippines since 2002 to provide counterterrorism training and to serve as advisers to Filipino soldiers, who have been battling Muslim militants for decades.

The agreement states that the US would "not establish a permanent military presence or base in the Philippines" in compliance with Manila's constitution. A Filipino base commander would have access to entire areas to be shared with American forces, according to the primer. There will be "utmost respect for Philippine sovereignty", it said.

Disagreements over Philippine access to designated US areas within local camps had hampered the negotiations for the agreement last year.

The agreement would promote better coordination between US and Filipino forces, boost the 120,000-strong Philippine military's capability to monitor and secure the country's territory and respond more rapidly to natural disasters and other emergencies.

"Pre-positioned material will allow for timely responses in the event of disasters natural or otherwise," the primer said.

While the US military would not be required to pay rent for local camp areas, the Philippines would own buildings and infrastructure to be built or improved by the Americans and reap economic gains from the US presence, it said, adding the pact was an executive agreement that would not need to be ratified by the Philippine Senate.

The presence of foreign troops is a sensitive issue in the Philippines, a former American colony.

Left-wing activists have protested against Obama's visit and the new defense pact in small but lively demonstrations, saying that the agreement reverses democratic gains achieved when huge US military bases were shut down in the early 1990s, ending nearly a century of American military presence in the Philippines.

The Philippine Senate voted in 1991 to close down US bases at Subic and Clark, northwest of Manila. However, it ratified a pact with the United States allowing temporary visits by American forces in 1999, four years after China seized a reef the Philippines contests.

Following the September 11 attacks in the United States, hundreds of US forces descended in the southern Philippines under that accord to hold counterterrorism exercises with Filipino troops fighting Muslim militants.

This time, the focus of the Philippines and its underfunded military has increasingly turned to external threats as territorial spats with China in the potentially oil- and gas-rich South China Sea heated up in recent years. The Philippines has turned to Washington, its longtime defense treaty ally, to help modernize its navy and air force, which are among Asia's weakest.

Chinese paramilitary ships took effective control of the disputed Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground off the northwestern Philippines, in 2012. Last year, Chinese coast guard ships surrounded another contested offshore South China Sea territory, the Second Thomas Shoal, where they have been trying to block food supplies and rotation of Filipino marines aboard a grounded Philippine navy ship in the remote coral outcrops.

The dangerous standoff has alarmed Washington, which called China's actions provocative.

China has ignored Philippine diplomatic protests and Manila's move last year to challenge Beijing's expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea before an international arbitration tribunal. It has warned the US to stay out of the Asian dispute.