Margie Mason, Philippines: The debate over whether new moms should breastfeed entered the top Philippine court Tuesday, with health officials claiming that aggressive advertising has many women believing that formula is better than their own milk.

With breastfeeding rates declining across Asia - just 35 percent of mothers breastfeed exclusively for their baby's first six months - the Philippine Health Department last year opted to strengthen its national milk code.

The goal was to make it harder for formula companies to target parents of children under age 2 with advertising of products that claim to foster smarter, stronger babies. The current regulations ban companies from promoting products for infants younger than 1 year old.

''We have seen a dramatic decrease of our breastfeeding rates. We have seen an increase of the profits and sale of infant formula companies,'' Health Department Undersecretary Alexander Padilla said.

The Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines has sued the government agency, arguing only Congress has the power to change regulations. The Supreme Court initially backed the Health Department, but on appeal, it ordered a halt to the stiffer rules, which also call for stricter labeling and sanctions on companies that do not comply.

On Tuesday, both sides were presenting further arguments.

About a dozen Filipina mothers lined up outside the court to protest against formula, which they say harms children. They bared their chests, which had been brightly spray-painted with slogans like ''God's milk is life'' and ''Greedy milk companies.''

But Sandra Coronel, an attorney for the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association, which includes U.S.-based infant formula companies Wyeth, Mead Johnson Nutritionals and Abbott Laboratories, said the legal battle was simply about a government agency overstepping its bounds.

''This is not about breast milk vs. infant formula,'' she said.

The row has prompted the Washington-based U.S. Chamber of Commerce to intervene. Its chief sent a letter to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo urging her to re-examine the Health Department's plan or risk the country's ''reputation as a stable and viable destination for investment.''

The World Health Organization recommends mothers nurse exclusively for the first six months and continue providing breast milk along with complementary foods until age 2. Research has shown that babies given breast milk develop fewer respiratory and intestinal diseases, and those given formula have a greater chance of developing asthma or allergies later in life, along with obesity. WHO estimates up to 1.45 million children die annually in poor countries because of low breastfeeding rates.

Exclusive breastfeeding rates during the first four to five months have dipped from 20 percent in 1998 to 16 percent in 2003 in the Philippines, where more women with disposable income are working full time and juggling busy lifestyles like many women in the West.

But unlike mothers in the United States and Europe, who are moving more toward breastfeeding in the first few months, many in rapidly developing Asian countries are abandoning the practice.

Thailand has the region's lowest exclusive breastfeeding rate during the first six months, with only 5.4 percent of mothers nursing. Vietnam's rate has fallen from 29 percent in 1998 to 15 percent in 2002, while Indonesia dropped from 42 percent in 1997 to 40 percent in 2002.