MANILA, Aug. 6 /Standard Newswire/ -- Nearly 7,000 people have fled their homes on a southern Philippine island, fearing an army offensive against Muslim rebels in retaliation against the killing of 14 Marines last month, disaster officials said on Monday.

Thousands of troops have been deployed around Basilan island to hunt about 300 Muslim rebels accused of killing the soldiers during a nine-hour battle on July 10. Ten of the Marines were beheaded.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sent teams of military doctors to the island on Monday to help people living in temporary shelters following the battle.

Local officials have appealed to the government to send food, medicines, clothes and materials after residents fled their villages, fearing they might be caught in a crossfire.

Arroyo said the army's medical teams were on a "mission of compassion" and warned Islamic militants against targeting them.

"They will treat people whose lot you have worsened by your belligerence."

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the mainly Catholic country's largest Muslim rebel group, has said it attacked government troops on July 10 after they entered their territory unannounced but the group denies decapitating the soldiers.

An investigation team composed of members of the government, the MILF and a non-government organisation pointed to the involvement of 14 members of the smaller Abu Sayyaf group in the beheadings.

Manila and the MILF have been negotiating since 1997 to end nearly 40 years of conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people in the south of the country.

Talks, brokered by Malaysia, have been stalled for nearly a year over the size and wealth of a proposed ancestral homeland for 3 million Muslims in the south.

Before the Basilan attack, talks were meant to resume this month but now face further delays.