Reports that seven Indonesian sailors had been held hostage by the Philippine militant group Abu Sayyaf were false, the Indonesian police and military said today.

The wives of two of the sailors told Indonesian media yesterday that Abu Sayyaf militants had seized the crew and demanded a US$5-million ransom for their release.

The women told local television they received phone calls from their husbands and were asked to notify the government, their employers and Indonesian media.

The military and the police denied the reports, saying that the sailors' wives were victims of a scam intended to blackmail the company their husbands work for.

"It's false," armed forces chief General Gatot Nurmantyo said on SCTV broadcaster. "It's a scam."

"It was the work of fraudsters," the head of the special crime department at the national police, Agung Setya, told Jawa Pos.

Last month, Abu Sayyaf released 14 Indonesian sailors they had abducted from two tugboats after holding them for a month.

The Indonesian government denied that any ransom was paid.

Abu Sayyaf militants have been blamed for some of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the Philippines, as well as high-profile kidnappings of foreigners.

- dpa