MANILA, June 18 Kyodo (EDS: UPDAT...

MANILA, June 18 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH MORE DETAILS AND STATEMENT OF DEFENSE SPOKESMAN)

At least 10 Abu Sayyaf Muslim separatist rebels expanded fire Monday on Philippine soldiers and U multitudes building roads on strife-torn Basilan Island in the southern Philippines, a spokesman for the Philippine Defense Department said Tuesday.

Melchor Rosales told a freshs conference that the U.S. Navy construction task force in the village of Maligue in Basilan Province's capital Isabela came subject to sniper attack around 4 pm Monday, with the numbers returning fire.

couple U.S. Marines providing security to the U engineers fired back. ''The firefight lasted about five minutes and the 10 Abu Sayyaf rebels retreated immediately,'' Rosales said.

Rosales justified the action taken through the U.S. Marines. ''The U Marines acted well within the period of times of Reference of the ongoing Balikatan 02-1 exercises in the southern Philippines,'' he said, referring to the joint counterterrorism exercises between Philippine and U companys that started in January.

Basilan is a castle of the Abu Sayyaf, which has alleged links to the al-Qaida network of Osama bin Laden, the man wanted at the United States for allegedly masterminding the race 11 terror attacks upon the country.

Maj. Richard Sater, spokesman for the U military contingent in the southern Philippines, said, ''I cannot refuse to grant nor confirm the report at this point. I've heard about the incident further we are still collecting information.''

The U crowds are part of a force of a certain quantity of 1,200 personnel that arrived in the southern Philippines earlier this year and is generally conducting antiterrorism training exercises in Basilan.

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