Manila  - A Philippine Red Cross official on Wednesday asked Muslim militants to prove that they did not behead one of three abducted Red Cross workers after the government ignored their demand for a troop pullout on a southern island.

Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, asked the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels to allow him to talk to the three Red Cross captives on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila.

Gaza/Cairo - Representatives of rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah returned to Cairo on Tuesday to resume talks on forming a "national unity" government, representatives of the groups said.

Egyptian-mediated talks between Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction, which controls the West Bank, were scheduled to resume on Tuesday, ahead of a broader meeting including more factions on Wednesday.

Manila  - Seventeen people were killed when communist rebels attacked a military outpost in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, an army spokesman said.

An undetermined number of guerrillas swooped down on an army patrol base in Malaybalay City in Bukidnon province, 855 kilometres south of Manila, according to Major Michele Anayron.

Anayron said troops manning the outpost clashed with the rebels, killing 11 of them.

Cotabato City, Philippines  - One soldier was killed and two were injured in a clash with Muslim secessionist rebels in the southern Philippines Tuesday, a regional army spokesman said.

Colonel Jonathan Ponce said the fighting erupted when patrolling troops encountered at least 20 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in Alamada town in North Cotabato province, 960 kilometres south of Manila.

Ponce said there was no report of MILF casualties in the firefight that lasted for one hour. The rebels withdrew to the jungles.

Manila  - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urged Muslim militants in the southern Philippines to spare the lives of three Red Cross workers amid a threat to behead one of the hostages on Tuesday.

The Abu Sayyaf rebel group has given the Philippine government until Tuesday afternoon to meet a demand to pullout all soldiers, policemen and militiamen from practically the entire Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila.

Manila /Geneva - The Red Cross on Monday issued an emotional plea for the lives of its staff members being held hostage by Abu Sayyaf rebels in the Philippines who threatened to behead one of the aid workers.

"Our message to Abu Sayyaf is: Please spare and release Mary Jean, Eugenio and Andreas," Jakob Kellenberger, the president of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement.