MANILA, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from clashes in the southern Philippines between government troops and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) forces has risen to nine, the country's disaster-relief agency said on Saturday.

　　Besides the fatalities, 22 persons were wounded while 113 houses were burned during the fighting, which started last weekend in the country's southern region of Mindanao, said the National Disaster Coordinating Council in a statement.

　　At least 24,623 families or 164,973 persons from 64 villages in three provinces had been affected, while 66 evacuation centers now host 6,467 families or 32,335 persons.

　　On the other hand, diseases have begun to "rear their heads" in some evacuation centers in the province of North Cotabato, where most of the clashes took place.

　　The diseases include fever and cough, headache, loose bowel movement, acute bronchitis, viral influenza, urinary tract infection, and infectious diarrhea, according to the statement.

　　The United Nations World Food Program and other relief institutions, as well as local governments, have been giving assistance to the internal refugees since Wednesday.

　　On Friday, Philippine army chief Alexander Yano said despite withdrawal of hundreds of MILF fighters in a dozen villages in thesiege of government troops, the situation in Mindanao remains "volatile and fluid."

　　Radical rebels started to occupy villages in North Cotabato since July 1, causing thousands of residents to flee home. The government gave a 24-hour ultimatum for the rebels to peacefully vacate the communities on Aug. 7, but the offer was defied by the rebels.

　　The military leadership ordered an offensive on Sunday to drive away the rebels from the communities, saying all peaceful means to resolve the issue have been exhausted. The combat forces, composed of 2,000 soldiers, reported to have retaken all occupied villages by Wednesday. Media reports said at least 31 rebels were killed in the clearance operation.

　　"While we are not at war, the current security situation in Mindanao is still volatile and fluid. The pullout could be a plot to buy time," Yano said in a speech on Friday.

　　Meanwhile, Maj. Armand Rico, spokesman of the military's Eastern Mindanao Command, said government troops remain deployed in the communities for safety petrol reasons.

　　The 12,000-member MILF, the country's largest Muslim rebel group, has been fighting for a Muslim state for nearly 4 million Muslims residing in the southern Philippines since its founding in the 1970s.

　　Sporadic skirmishes erupted between the rebels and government forces in the south since last Monday when the country's Supreme Court halted the signing of a Muslim homeland agreement.

　　The agreement is seen instrumental to a final peace accord but it had met protests from the Christian groups in the South and the strong criticism from the opposition of the administration.