Philippine security forces on Saturday rescued a Swiss Red Cross worker held hostage for three months by Islamic militant guerrillas, government officials said.

Andreas Notter, 38, was freed on the outskirts of the town of Indanan on Jolo island in the extreme south of the country following a joint operation by the military and local police, the officials said.

Notter was due to be flown to the southern city of Zamboanga later Saturday where he was to be reunited with colleagues from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The government said they had no immediate details about the fate of a second Red Cross hostage, 62-year-old Italian national Eugenio Vagni who was believed to be unwell and in need of hernia surgery.

The two men, along with a local colleague, were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf group on 15 January as they left a prison on Jolo. The Filipina, Mary Jean Lacaba, was released on 2 April.

Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said the kidnappers had been trying to slip through a large military-police cordon when they were intercepted.

"They gave chase and the kidnappers were forced to leave Mr Notter behind, because they were not able to drag him with them anymore," he told reporters.

The office of Philippine President Gloria Arroyo hailed the rescue.

"This is a major breakthrough that we hope shall eventually lead to the rescue of the last remaining hostage, Eugenio Vagni," spokesman Cerge Remonde said in a statement.

Armed forces chief General Alexander Yano declined to give further details of the rescue mission as he said it would compromise efforts to free the remaining hostage.

He said "non-violent" efforts were underway to free the Italian including dialogue headed by five Muslim clerics who were dispatched to the Abu Sayyaf's stronghold last week to negotiate.

Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine Red Cross chapter, said there had been reports of intense clashes around Indanan late Friday, just a day after the military said it was prepared to rescue the hostages.

The Abu Sayyaf had threatened to behead one of the foreign hostages unless Philippine government forces pulled back from around their positions on Jolo.

They have locked in an intense stand-off with troops after being cornered in a jungle area near Indanan, where the military said their supplies were running low.

Abu Sayyaf militants have kidnapped other Westerners over the past decade, many of whom, according to the Philippine military, were released after the payment of large ransoms.

The militants also murdered an American hostage, Guillermo Sobero, in 2001. The following year a second American, Christian missionary Martin Burnham, was killed in a military attack that led to the rescue of his wife.

The group is on the US government's list of foreign terrorist organizations, and small number of American forces have been rotating on Jolo island since 2003 to provide intelligence information to their Fililipino counterparts.

AFP

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