Philippine judge issues warrants for US Marines

MANILA, Friday (Reuters) - A Philippine judge issued arrest warrants on Friday for four U.S. Marines charged with raping a Filipino woman, but he said diplomacy should settle a debate over custody of the soldiers now detained at the U.S. embassy.

The Philippines, a former U.S. colony battling Muslim and communist insurgencies, is Washington's closest security partner in Southeast Asia.

Both sides have said the rape case and custody issue, which have not yet inflamed any serious anti-American sentiment, will do nothing to affect those ties.

Government officials and many legal experts say a Visiting Forces Agreement between the two allies takes precedence in the event of a conflict with Philippine law. Others say the rape case is extraordinary, allowing local law to trump the 1998 treaty.

An official Philippine request for custody last year was now in Washington but no decision had been made, the U.S. embassy has said, stressing its cooperation in the case alongside the treaty's provision for U.S. custody until legal proceedings end.

The judge handling the case issued the arrest warrants for the American soldiers to agents from the National Bureau of Investigation for transfer to the foreign affairs department, which will serve them to the U.S. embassy.

Executive Judge Renato Dilag of the regional trial court in Olongapo City, northwest of Manila, said he granted that matters of sovereignty and national pride were part of the case.

But he said, given the legal process in light of the treaty, "we can first try to exhaust diplomatic means to get the custody of the four servicemen".