ZAMBOANGA, August 4, 2008 (AFP) - Thousands of people protested in the southern Philippines on Monday against a land deal that could pave the way to peace between the government and Muslim separatist guerrillas.

In the southern port city of Zamboanga an estimated 15,000 people, many of them of other faiths, took to the streets expressing their opposition to the accord, due to be signed in Malaysia on Tuesday.

Two petitions have already been filed with the Supreme Court calling for a temporary restraining order against the government not to sign the treaty with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Protesters carrying placards saying 'MILF go home' blocked streets around Zamboanga's city hall voicing their anger over the deal. The rally was attended by a number of prominent Roman Catholic church leaders and local officials.

Under an agreement completed between the MILF and the government in Malaysia over the weekend, large swathes of Mindanao will become part of a Muslim state to be controlled and run by Muslims.

The autonomous region will have its own legal, banking and education systems, civil service and internal security force.

But many non-Muslims oppose the deal because their land could be included in the settlement hoped to put an end to the 30-year-old insurgency which has claimed more than 120,000 lives.

Congressman Erico Fabian, representing the predominately Christian city of Zamboanga, filed one of the petitions with the Supreme Court on Monday asking the court to block Tuesday's signing.

Although the city is located in Muslim Mindanao its Christian mayor, Celso Lobregat, is on record saying he will never allow the city to be incorporated into a Muslim state.

The agreement has also put a question mark over the future of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) which is due to hold elections later this month.

Established in 1996 after a peace agreement between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the semi-autonomous ARMM was to have solved the so-called Muslim problem in the southern Philippines but was seen by many Muslims as a 'sell out'.

The MILF, which split from the MNLF in 1981 after ideological disagreements over the future direction of the movement, continued to fight for a Muslim homeland.

'The MILF does not represent the Muslims in Mindanao,' said Caloy Bandaying, a former Muslim rebel who has since joined sides with the government.