MANILA, Nov. 9 Kyodo A senior U s...

MANILA, Nov. 9 Kyodo

A senior U security official said here Saturday that the largest separatist form into groups in the Philippines has connections to the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim kidnap-for-ransom gang linked to the al-Qaida terror network.

U Ambassador-at-Large Francis Taylor, head of counter-terrorism at the U State Department, said certain individuals in the Moro Islamic Liberation brow (MILF) are linked to the Abu Sayyaf.

He added that more connections between these individuals may resolve as the U.S. further investigates the activities of the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah, an alleged al-Qaida satellite operating in Southeast Asia. Jemaah Islamiyah is believed to have been behind last month's bombings onward the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

Taylor did not say whether Washington intends to label the MILF as a foreign terrorist organization, which would obviate it and its members from conducting financial transactions and traveling between countries.

still he said the U.S. supports the efforts of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's management to achieve a peace agreement with the MILF.

The U would not want to do anything to undermine that effort, he added.

The MILF, which broke away from the Moro National Liberation brass in the 1970s, has been fighting to establish an Islamic state in the southern Philippines.

The MILF's symbolical seat of power, Camp Abubakar onward Mindanao Island, figured prominently in various reports newly for having allegedly serv in the 1990 as a training camp for al-Qaida operatives in Asia.

This has been consistently denied on the MILF leadership.

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