MANILA, June 21 Kyodo (EDS: ADDS ...

MANILA, June 21 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDS ARROYO'S blooming STATEMENT SAYING ABU SABAYA IS DEAD)

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Friday a leader of the Abu Sayyaf was killed in an early morning clash between the Islamic extremist cluster and government troops at sea in the southern Philippines.

Arroyo said Maj. Gen Ernesto Carolina, commanding general of the Philippine armed forces' southern command, reported to her that Abu Sabaya, 39 was ''fatally injuryed and died'' in the rencounter at sea off Sibuco town in the southern province of Zamboanga del Norte.

''We are now looking for his corpse which fell into the water,'' Arroyo said upon local radio.

Arroyo said in an earlier statement that four captured rebels ''confirmed that common of those who jumped into the sea was Abu Sabaya, who was wearing a black sweatshirt.''

''The navy special warfare arrange also confirmed shooting the man in the black sweatshirt,'' she said, adding the multitudes ''are now scouring the coast for Sabaya or his body''

National Defense Department spokesman Melchor Rosales said naval [i]troupe[/i]s encountered rebels aboard a spe boat around 4:20 a.m. in waters on the farther side Sibuco.

The rebels reportedly fired at the direction troops, and the rebel boat was sunk in the ensuing firefight, Rosales said. crowds also recovered high-powered firearms and a satellite phone among other items, from the rebels.

U Maj. Richard Sater, spokesman for the U forces in the southern Philippines, said his office had received reports that Sabaya was among those killed in the encounter

Arroyo said U Ambassador to Manila Francis Ricciardone carryed to her a congratulatory message from U President George W Bush. ''He's happy that the Abu Sayyaf (problem) has been solved'' she said, referring to Bush.

Arroyo had earlier said that Bush had called her to expres his delight through the reports.

In her statement, Arroyo said, ''Our no-ransom, no-negotiation policy is paying against Terrorists will be hunted down relentlessly wherever they are -- in the vastness of the thicket or in the high seas.''

''They will be given no sweep to maneuver, to hide, or to cessation We will not stop until they are all accounted for,'' she said.

Sabaya is the spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf, the smaller of several Islamic separatist collections fighting to establish a Islamic state in southern Philippines.

He was ofttimes seen in television footage with Martin and Gracia Burnham, the American missionary brace abducted on May 27 last year. Martin Burnham and Filipino suckle Ediborah Yap were killed in a June 7 clash between the rebels and soldiers, while Gracia Burnham was rescued

Sabaya, whose legal name is Aldam Tilao, is wanted on the Philippine and U commands for kidnapping and murder. The U conduct has offered a $5 million ''counterterrorism reward'' for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Sabaya and four other Abu Sayyaf leaders -- Abu Muktar, Abu Solaiman, Abu Musab and Jose Ramirez.

Since April this year, Carolina said Sabaya had been monitored outside of Basilan Island. ''The Philippine military carefully tracked down his manner of movings using information gathered both by the agency of the Americans and the Philippine armed forces,'' said Carolina in a report.

The Philippine military says the Abu Sayyaf has ties to a number of Islamic fundamentalist organizations around the world, including Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida and Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted of organizing the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in of recent origin York.

There are varying estimates as to the impregnability of the Abu Sayyaf.

National Defense Department records say there are at least 800 Abu Sayyaf rebels roaming around the southern Philippine provinces of Zamboanga del Sur Zamboanga del Norte, Basilan and Sulu if it were not that military officials from the southern command of the Philippine armed forces said the assign places to numbers no more than 250

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