Hooded gunmen swooped down on a luxury island resort in the western Philippines at around dawn yesterday taking hostage 20 tourists, including three Americans, and three resort staff with them before fleeing aboard a boat, Philippines officials said.

Governor Joel Reyes of western Palawan island said some 24 heavily armed gunmen arrived at around 5am along the shore of the exclusive Dos Palmas resort in the island of Bugsuk, some 650 kilometres southwest of the capital, Manila.

The gunmen kicked down the doors of 10 beachside cottages before rounding up its occupants with military style precision. Police investigators found guest rooms in disarray, and open fridges after the dawn raid. "The entire operation lasted 15 minutes," according to a witness.

Other witnesses said many of the 10 women hostages were in tears as their captors forced them at gunpoint into a motorboat that took them to an unknown destination. The military and immigration authorities in Manila said the kidnapped hostages included American missionaries Martin Burnham and his Filipina wife Gracia Burnham as well as Guillermo Sobero, believed to be a businessman.

The rest of the kidnap victims were Filipinos, including Reghis Romero, whom authorities in Manila believe is a businessman who operates a sprawling port facility in Manila and a construction business.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's spokesman, Rigoberto Tiglao, said that the kidnappers had been sighted and expressed confidence the victims would soon be rescued. Reyes said an abandoned boat, believed to belong to the kidnappers, was found in Palawan's municipality of Batarasa, some 75 kilometres from the site of the abduction at Honda Bay in the southeastern portion of the island.

Armed Force chief, Lt Gen Diomedio Villanueva, in Palawan's capital of Puerto Princesa has dispatched soldiers and aircraft to scour the area close to the site where the boat was found while Navy ships were sent to the area near the border with Malaysia. Palawan is about two hours' boat ride from Kudat on the northern tip of the Malaysian state of Sabah.

The resort personnel said the hooded men who raided their resort spoke in the Tausug dialect, which is native to Sulu, boosting speculations that the gunmen may be with the Abu Sayyaf.