President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday appointed retired Maj. Gen. Antonio Santos as crisis manager in a far-reaching move to tighten operations against the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, a senior official said.

Arroyo gave Santos the title of defence undersecretary with "full responsibility to deal with all aspects of the (hostage-taking) crisis", said Presidential spokesperson, Rigoberto Tiglao. Santos will be responsible for coordinating with internal security operations, for the provinces of Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi, said Defence Secretary Angelo Reyes.

These areas are controlled by the Abu Sayyaf which is holding 21 hostages in the Basilan jungles. Santos retired as deputy defence secretary last December.

A source told Gulf News that the government will also assign as negotiator Farouk Hussein, special adviser on Muslim affairs and foreign minister of the mainstream Moro National Liberation Front. Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya named Hussein earlier as one of three negotiators he has chosen for the release of the hostages.

The government has insisted that Malaysian negotiators chosen by the Abu Sayyaf – former Senator Sairin Karno and businessman Yusuf Hamdan – must talk to government appointed negotiator William Castillo, and should not go straight to the Abu Sayyaf leaders.

"I don't think they (the Malaysian negotiators) should get involved (directly by talking to Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya). It will just complicate matters. They are foreign nationals and this (problem) is strictly an external affair," said Reyes.

"Hamdan is based in Sabah and we cannot stop him from calling Sabaya by cell phone," said Reyes. Hussein and the two Malaysian nationals mediated to end an earlier hostage crisis when the Abu Sayyaf abducted 40 mostly foreign hostages from a resort in Malaysia last year. They were freed after non-government organisations from Libya, Malaysia and Europe allegedly paid an estimated $20 million in ransom.

The U.S. Embassy has said the Philippines government alone has the right to choose its negotiators. The extra government precautions are a result of recent statements by Abu Sabaya that his group would carry out more killings that could intensify a Muslim separatist movement across Southeast Asia.

Sabaya hinted that Saudi-born millionaire Osama bin Laden was the group's backer. The wealthy dissident, believed to be hiding in Afghanistan, has been accused of masterminding terrorist attacks on two U.S. embassies in West Africa in 1998.

"We are very concerned about it, that's why we are calling on Abu Sabaya to stop this carnage and talk to our negotiators. All these beheadings won't do his cause any good," said Tiglao.