MALAYSIA says clashes between intruding Filipino militants and its security forces have left 60 people dead, as it rejected a ceasefire offer from the fighters' leader.
Police chief Ismail Omar said 32 followers of a self-proclaimed Philippine sultan had been killed in two confrontations since Wednesday near the scene of a three-week standoff in Sabah state, after a military assault to dislodge them.
That brought the total dead to 60, including 52 militants. Eight Malaysian policemen were killed in skirmishes last weekend.
Troops and police are currently hunting the Islamic militants in a remote region of Borneo island, where they landed last month to assert a long-dormant territorial claim in what has become Malaysia's worst security crisis in years.
A spokesman for their Manila-based leader, who called for a midday ceasefire, said 235 people including eight women took part in the original incursion.
Prime Minister Najib Razak, who flew to the region on Thursday to inspect security operations, said he told Philippine leader Benigno Aquino by phone the ceasefire offer was rejected.
"I told President Aquino they must lay down their arms immediately," Najib told reporters in a village near where the army and police were searching for scores of militants.
"They have to surrender their arms and they have to do it as soon as possible."
The "sultan", Jamalul Kiram III, declared a unilateral ceasefire for 12.30pm (1530 AEDT) and urged Malaysia to reciprocate.
But Najib said Malaysian forces would press on with the offensive, sending more soldiers into the hilly region of vast oil palm estates and pockets of jungle.
Authorities said one intruder was killed in a clash on Wednesday and 31 on Thursday.
They gave no details, other than to say one encounter was in the village of Tanduo, where the standoff began, and the other in the neighbouring village of Tanjung Batu to the east.
The remaining militants were still believed to be in the two villages.
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