184 Still Missing in Philippine Ferry Disaster:

The Philippine Islamist bandit group Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility yesterday for an explosion on a ferry near Manila on Friday that killed one person and left 184 missing.

President Gloria Arroyo dismissed the claim as "an afterthought", despite threats Abu Sayyaf made last year to target passenger ferries.

"There is nothing in the investigation that proves that this was an act of terrorists," Ms Arroyo said yesterday. She was speaking at the coastguard headquarters, where she met relatives hoping for a miracle from within the still-smoking, semi-submerged Superferry 14.

The bomb claim was made by an Abu Sayyaf spokesman to the Radio Mindanao network. "This is a revenge," he was quoted as saying, although it is not clear to what he was referring.

Hours after the ferry exploded early on Friday, two Abu Sayyaf members were convicted of the kidnapping in 2000 of an American. The spokesman called back later to say the bomb had been placed in a "blue cabin, bedding 51", another ambiguous reference as there is no blue section on the ship. The bomber allegedly left the ship before it sailed.

The transport secretary, Leandro Mendoza, called the claim "far-fetched". But the cause of the blast that set the ship on fire remains uncertain.

Rescue workers managed to board Superferry 14 yesterday for the first time and searched about a third of it, but found no human remains. Divers scouring the sea also returned empty-handed.

"We didn't even see any bones. Where did the missing go?" one diver said.

The ferry owners, WG&A, refused to give up hope yesterday. A spokeswoman said: "We can't say the unaccounted are dead because we're not seeing bodies."

It is hoped that some of the people who jumped overboard were picked up by fishing boats and taken ashore, and that they then simply went home.