Philippine government, communist rebels have secret talks in Norway on reviving peace effort

Philippine government officials and communist rebels held three days of secret peace talks in Oslo this week in an bid to revive efforts to end a nearly four-decade conflict in the Asian country, a Norwegian official said Thursday.

Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Raymond Johansen said the meetings that ended Thursday focused on ways of resolving one of Asia's longest-running Marxist insurrections. He said the talks were kept informal and confidential at the request of the parties.

The talks ended without the delegations immediately offering comment.

The last talks in Norway aimed at ending the conflict stalled in 2005.

The Philippine …