Filipinos Urged to Unite Against Terror

The Philippine president, Gloria Arroyo, ordered tighter security yesterday in the southern city of General Santos, where three bombs killed at least 14 people on Sunday, and promised a more intensive campaign against Muslim terrorists in the region.

A spokesman for the most notorious Islamic gang, the Abu Sayyaf, told a local radio station that it exploded the bombs, that they were merely "a warm up", and that they would continue until the government halted its campaign against Muslims.

In General Santos the police arrested two men in connection with the blasts but said they were members of another group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The front signed a ceasefire with Manila last year but in recent months renegade elements of the 15,000-strong force have periodically clashed with the police.

After a flying visit to see the devastation in General Santos, on the southern tip of Mindanao island, Ms Arroyo said a state of emergency would be declared, but later this was scaled down to curfews in selected parts of the city, and more checkpoints and army patrols.

"This evil will not go unpunished," she said in a statement. "We will fight terrorism to the end. We're doing what has to be done for peace in the southern Philippines."

A small bomb went off in a fishing vessel near General Santos harbour just before Ms Arroyo arrived but no injuries were reported.

The president offered a 5m peso (£69,000) reward for the arrest of the bombers.

Many analysts agree with Ms Arroyo that the attack may be a sign of increasing Abu Sayyaf desperation as government troops tighten their grip on its main lair on Basilan island, where it is holding three hostages, including an American missionary couple.

About 660 American soldiers, including 160 from the special forces, are advising and training the Philippine forces in the region.

At the weekend an additional 300, mostly navy engineers, began arriving on Basilan. They will mainly build infrastructure.

It seems increasingly likely that this, Washington's biggest expansion of its war on terror outside Afghanistan, will be extended for another six months from its scheduled conclusion at the end of July.

A three-week joint exercise involving 2,700 US service personnel and a similar number of Filipinos began yesterday in the island of Luzon, focused on counter-terrorism.