The Manila Sunday Times newspaper said the governor of Ifugao province, Mr Teodoro Baguilat, will meet representatives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) on the issue.

The paper did not give a date for the discussion of the possible delisting of the famous Ifugao rice terraces.

Unesco National Commission of the Philippines (Unacom) commissioner Carmen Padilla had said earlier that the terraces might be taken off the World Heritage List if the government failed to restore their natural grandeur in two years.

'The Unacom statement serves as a serious warning to the national government to come up with decisive action to preserve the rice terraces, built more than 2,000 years ago and (which) made the Philippines famous,' Mr Baguilat told the paper.

He said provincial governments, along with non-governmental organisations and civil society, faced an uphill battle to preserve and protect the rice terraces.

Over the years, Unesco has expressed its concern about the deterioration of the rice terraces due to mismanagement, uncontrolled building and the apparent absence of a sustainable tourism programme.

A major tourist attraction, the rice terraces cover 20,000ha along the Cordillera mountain range on the main island of Luzon.

Placed on the World Heritage List in 1995, they rise from the bottom of valleys to about 1,000m and higher in some places.

Environmentalists have said that more than 50 per cent of the terraces have vanished over the years.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE