Pictures of captive priest surface in Philippines

MANILA, July 7 (Reuters) Several photographs of an Italian priest held captive for nearly a month by Muslim gunmen in the southern Philippines surfaced this week, an army general said today.

Lieutenant-General Eugeno Cedo said at least four pictures of Giancarlo Bossi were sent, via mobile phone, to a Filipino priest based on Basilan island, on Thursday night.

''We're still trying to authenticate the pictures because we have no idea when the photographs were taken,'' Cedo told reporters, adding the images were shown to Italian officials who flew late yesterday to the southern port city of Zamboanga.

Bossi, a 57 year-old Milan-born missionary of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), was taken at gunpoint on June 10 near his church in a coastal village in Zamboanga Sibugay province on Mindanao island.

Until the pictures surfaced this week, there were no contacts with his captors. No group had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping nor demanded any ransom for his release.

One photo showed Bossi sitting in a forest, wearing a white sports shirt with blue stripes, the clothes he wore when he was abducted.

Another picture showed him holding a radio with a water jug beside him. He was in red slippers, with his rubber shoes nearby.

Bossi, who was over 160 cm and about 120 kg, looked thin and haggard in the pictures.

''We cannot say that this was hard proof that he is still alive,'' Margherita Boniver, an Italian lawmaker who was sent by Italy to gather information on Bossi's kidnapping, told reporters at a news conference on Saturday.

The Philippine military believes a rogue faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a Muslim rebel group talking peace with the government, was behind the kidnapping.

The MILF was initially helping soldiers in locating and working to free the priest but pulled its forces out when two army generals could not agree on where to search for Bossi.

REUTERS SV RN1637