Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung said the armed gang who abducted a group of resort workers in Sabah has yet to make their demands for release of the hostages.

"The police are investigating this and monitoring the situation. We have to wait because there has been no communication so far (with the abductors)," he told reporters at the Parliament lobby today.

"There is no new development because we don't know what they want, whether it's ransom or anything else."

Three Indonesian and three Filipino workers were abducted late Sunday night in a raid on the Borneo Paradise Resort on the River Sabahan and taken away by longboat.

Chor said initial checks by the police indicate that the abductors are likely to be Malaysians, although the information has not been verified.

Regional co-operation

At another press conference, Defence Minister Najib Abdul Razak attributed the incident to the lack of security at the new resort, which opened six months ago. At present, no army or police personnel are stationed there.

"The resort is new and is (located) far away from other established resorts," he said, also at the Parliament lobby.

The resort is some two kilometres from the northeast Borneo coast and 38 kilometres from the nearest town, Kunak

Najib stressed that there have been no such incidents ever since the government placed army and police personnel to look after tourism spots in Sabah.

This followed the kidnap of 21 tourists and resort workers in Sipadan island in April 2000 by Philippine Muslim rebel group Abu Sayyaf . Some were held for nearly a year before they were released, reportedly in exchange for millions of dollars in ransom.

Officers from the Royal Malaysian Air Force and Royal Malaysian Navy are assisting the police in investigating the current incident, alongside co-operation from the Philippines and Indonesia.

Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai had earlier said some of the 10 abductors wore military fatigues and carried modern weapons.

However, he ruled out speculation that Abu Sayyaf was involved this time because of the choice of targets - workers, rather than foreign tourists.