The government has deployed hundreds of troops in a search and rescue operation in Sabah after armed raiders abducted six foreign workers from a holiday resort, Defence Minister Najib Abduk Razak said today.

The military was working closely with the police in the hunt for the 10 kidnappers who escaped from the tiny riverside Borneo Paradise Resort by speedboat with their Indonesian and Filipino captives on Sunday night, he said.

"I have instructed reinforcements to be sent to that area. One battalion has been deployed to the area to enhance security," Najib told reporters.

The kidnappers had not communicated with the authorities, he said.

Family's plea

Malaysian police believe the kidnapping was carried out by local criminals or "pirates" seeking ransom.

Although some of the kidnappers were wearing military fatigues and carried assault rifles, police have ruled out speculation that they are members of the Philippine Muslim rebel group Abu Sayyaf, which carried out similar raids three years ago.

Local media reported Tuesday that a group of 50 schoolchildren had left the resort, which caters mainly to local tourists and campers, just hours before the raid.

The resort, which opened six months ago, is some two kilometres from the northeast Borneo coast and 38 kilometres from the nearest town, Kunak.

Bini Masalating, 43, whose husband Asara Saraban, 45, was among those abducted, appealed to the kidnappers to free him, saying they were not only poor, they were "nobodies."

"Whoever took my husband and the others must free them. We are merely workers earning very little," she told The Star.

She said her husband was of Filipino Bajau origin and they had lived in Sabah since 1991.

Malaysia had already beefed up security around the many resort islands in Sabah facing the troubled southern Philippines after the previous kidnapping incidents, but the United States maintains an advisory warning its citizens against travel to the area.

Speaking Malay

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo said Tuesday there was "no proof" that Filipinos were behind the kidnapping, but said the Philippines authorities were helping Malaysia go after the gunmen.

"Close coordination with Malaysian authorities is being pursued, aimed at identifying the suspects, pinpointing their location and stepping up information and intelligence exchange," she said.

Philippine military officials had on Monday suggested that the gang could be heading across the sea border to the southern Philippines with the six captives.

Suspicion had initially fallen on the Abu Sayyaf, which kidnapped 21 people, mostly Western tourists, from the Sipadan resort in Sabah in April

The Sipadan hostages were shipped to the southern Philippine island of Jolo where they were held for nearly a year in the jungle. They were later ransomed for millions of dollars.

"We cannot determine yet if the kidnappers are members of the Abu Sayyaf, but we are not discounting that possibility," southern Philippines military commander Lieutenant General Roy Kyamko told reporters Tuesday.

"We have reports that the kidnappers spoke fluent Malay. Intelligence reports say that the kidnappers are still in Sabah, but we are also not discounting that other lawless elements are involved in this."

Kyamko said the two sides have converted an ongoing bilateral naval exercise in their common sea border into a "joint operation to recover the victims."

Two navy ships each from each country are taking part, he said. - AFP