The Philippine government hopes to reach a peace deal with communist guerrillas within a year, according to the head of a government delegation that kicked off negotiations in Norway on Monday.

"On the part of the (government) panel, we have imposed a timeline of nine to 12 months... We are quite confident that we will be able to achieve our timetable," Silvestre Bello, the delegation's head of negotiations, told reporters as talks began to end one of Asia's longest insurgencies.