Manila  - The Philippine military has formed a team to track down the kidnappers of a 78-year-old Irish priest in the country's troubled south, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner said security forces have not yet determined the identities of the kidnappers of Catholic priest Michael Sinnott but initial suspicion centred on al-Qaeda-linked Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebels.

Sinnott, a Columban missionary who recently underwent a heart bypass operation, was seized late Sunday by six unidentified gunmen at the mission's house in Pagadian City, 890 kilometres south of Manila.

The gunmen barged into the gated Columban House in downtown Pagadian and forcibly took Sinot at gunpoint to a waiting mini-van.

Police investigators said the suspects burned the mini-van in the nearby village of Santa Lucia and transferred the victim to a motorized boat.

Witnesses said the suspects, along with their victim, fled in the direction of Zamboanga del Sur province.

Authorities said the motive for the abduction was likely to collect ransom.

Sinnott has been working since 1966 in the strife-torm southern region of Mindanao, where he has done a variety of pastoral and administrative work. In 1998, he established a school in the area.

The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for numerous high-profile kidnappings in the southern Philippines, including the abduction of 21 Western tourists and Asian workers from a Malaysian resort island in 2000. (dpa)