Three skeletons discovered in the southern Philippines are believed to be the remains of Malaysian and Indonesian seamen kidnapped by Filipino Muslim rebels in April, officials said today.

The skeletal remains were found three weeks ago in shallow graves on Tawi Tawi island in the southern Philippines after two captured gunmen of the Abu Sayyaf separatist group led the military to the grave, a Philippine marine source told AFP in Kota Kinabalu by telephone.

"The remains have been flown from the Philippines Marine 11 battalion base Camp in Sanga Sanga on Tawi Tawi island to the southern command military headquarters in Zamboanga city for DNA tests," another Philippine official said on condition of anonymity.

Post-mortem

He said a post-mortem would be conducted to determine the cause of death and to confirm that the skeletal remains were those of the three abducted seamen.

The sailors - Malaysians Toh Chiu Tiong and Wong Siu Ung and Indonesian Walter Sempel - were abducted when their tugboat was attacked while on its way from Miri in Sarawak to the Solomon Islands on April 11.

The Abu Sayyaf, known mainly for kidnapping for ransom and bomb attacks against Christians and foreigners in the southern Philippines, has been linked by Washington and Manila to the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden.