President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pointed out that the U.S. had a longer running hostage crisis than the Philippines. She was responding to the reported impatience of the U.S. over the Philippine government's inability to rescue three American hostages in the southern Philippines.

"Patty Hearst, how long did it take for them to bring her out?" Arroyo curtly said in response to the demand of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell,that the Abu Sayyaf group should be quashed soon.

The Symbionese Liberation Army in the United States had kidnapped the daughter of a U.S. publishing tycoon Patricia Hearst in 1974. She joined them for a year until the U.S. authorities captured her and brought her back to her family.

The abductions of the Abu Sayyaf group have become an embarrassment to the Philippine government because of the inability of the police and the military to capture the Abu Sayyaf leaders and rescue their remaining 21 hostages in the hinterlands of Basilan.

The group is still holding the American missionary couple, Martin and Gracia Burnham, and 19 Filipinos in Basilan. The Philippine government has not yet verified reports of Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya that American tourist Guillermo Sobero was beheaded last June 12.

The Americans were not included in the 14 released by the group last June. They were reportedly freed after payment of a ransom of $100,000 (P5 million) per head. The group has brazenly boasted of having beheaded four other hostages.

Our Zamboanga Correspondent Al Jacinto adds: Government soldiers killed three Abu Sayyaf rebels in an encounter in Talipao town, Jolo, southern Philippines last Wednesday, a belated report said. There were no government casualties, the report added.

At the same time, the government soldiers and the Abu Sayyaf fighters clashed anew in nearby Sumisip town in Basilan island.