Gunmen kidnap Italian priest in Philippine south

MANILA, June 10 (Reuters) Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines kidnapped an Italian Catholic priest today just after he had celebrated mass, a colleague and an army brigade commander said.

Colonel Godofredo Paderanga said a group of rebels grabbed Father Carlo Bossi of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions in the remote coastal village of Bulawan and took him at gunpoint to a waiting boat.

''We've sent troops to track down the armed men, who are believed to be members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) under Commander Kedie,'' Paderanga told reporters.

Paderanga said troops in the neighbouring coastal towns of Naga and Tungawan had been alerted to intercept the boat carrying the gunmen and the Italian priest.

The head of the congregation, Father Gianni Sandalo, said Bossi, 57 and from Milan, had been seized just 500 metres from the church where he had said mass. Sandalo said no ransom demand had yet been received.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said he had been informed of the kidnapping, but denied his group's involvement.

''Commander Kedie is no longer a member of the MILF,'' Kabalu told Reuters by telephone. ''He has long been outlawed for criminal activities. We would cooperate with government forces for the early recovery of the priest.'' Another priest from the same congregation was kidnapped in 1998.

Renegade MILF members took Luciano Benedetti hostage but freed him a few months later when the main MILF interceded.

In 2001, an Italian priest from another community was kidnapped and later freed, also with help from the MILF.

Kabalu said the MILF had signed an agreement with the government to help ''isolate and interdict'' criminal gangs engaged in kidnap-for-ransom activities in Muslim areas in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country.

The MILF has been negotiating to end nearly 40 years of conflict that has killed 120,000 people and displaced 2 million.

Talks, brokered by Malaysia, have been stalled since September 2006 over the size and wealth of a proposed ancestral homeland for 3 million Muslims in the resource-rich southern Philippines.

Yesterday, MILF field commanders met army and police counterparts in Cotabato City to strengthen the fragile truce that has been holding since July 2003.

Reuters SG GC1300