FACTBOX: Muslims vote in autonomous area in Philippine south

(Reuters) - About 1.6 million Muslims in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines are choosing on Monday a new governor, a vice governor and 24 members of a regional legislative assembly to serve for three years in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The ARMM, the country's poorest region, where average annual income was just 89,000 pesos ($2,025) in 2006, less than a third of the level in Manila, was created in 1989 as part of a deal to end a Muslim separatist conflict that began in the late 1960s.

Here are some facts about ARMM: * ARMM, covering 12,288 sq km, is comprised of the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Shariff Kabunsuan on the main southern island of Mindanao and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-tawi. Last month, the country's Supreme Court ruled the creation of the province of Shariff Kabunsuan was illegal because ARMM has no power to create political units.

* ARMM has a population of 4.1 million based on the 2007 census. It's one of the country's top producers of fish and marine resources, particularly seaweed, which is used in some toothpastes, cosmetics and paints.

The Muslim homeland is also believed to have large mineral deposits, including copper and gold. But the area has had negligible foreign investment because of an ongoing Muslim insurgency and communist rebel activities in nearby provinces.

* The creation of a Muslim homeland dated back to the 1970s when Manila signed a deal with the separatist group Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in Tripoli, Libya. Thirteen provinces were originally covered by the 1976 Tripoli agreement but most opted not to join ARMM during a plebiscite in 1990.

* Muslims were granted self-rule in limited areas in the south, creating an executive, legislative and court systems and allowing the formation of regional security forces supervised by Manila's military and police.

* But, most of the political and cultural powers granted to ARMM were never implemented or were watered down. ARMM also has no fiscal independence, relying on Manila for its annual budget of 8 billion pesos.

* Another Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, has been negotiating with Manila since 1997 to further enlarge the Muslim homeland and grant it wider political, economic and social powers. But a deal on territory supposed to be signed on August 5 was put on hold by the Supreme Court, creating uncertainty in the peace process.

* Under the territory deal, the proposed Muslim homeland should get 75 percent of all revenues from natural resources found in the south, allowing it more flexibility and less dependency on funding from the central government.

(Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Carmel Crimmins and Jerry Norton)