Negotiations between the government and the rebel Abu Sayyaf moved to the capital Manila, as the 72-hour deadline given by the separatist Abu Sayyaf guerrillas who have threatened to behead three Americans if the government failed to grant their demands, elapsed without event.

The Abu Sayyaf said three American hostages - the missionary couple, Martin and Gracia Burnham, from Kansas, and Guillermo Sobero of California – would be beheaded yesterday unless the military stops its campaign in Basilan and Jolo, and accepted their nominees, two Malaysians, as negotiators.

However, the midnight deadline passed without the threatened beheading. "The Abu Sayyaf Group is alarmed, not us," said National Security Adviser Roilo Golez, after meeting President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday.

Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya personally contacted the government emissary William Castillo four times on Saturday, a sign that "he is nervous about the military assault," said Golez, adding Sabaya's calls were made while the government continued its military offensive around the hide-out of the group in Tuburan, Basilan, near Zamboanga, a port city in the southern Philippines.

The government will just ignore the 72-hour deadline given by the Abu Sayyaf last Thursday, said a presidential source, adding that "new plans and strategies are under way for the safe release of the hostages".

A team of Abu Sayyaf members arrived in Manila last night to demand P10 million ($200,000) ransom for the remaining 13 hostages, including the three Americans. "The ransom demands were sent to the affluent families of the hostages," said the source.

At the same time, the government has been assured of assistance from the U.S., Libya, Malaysia, and other Muslim countries in solving the current hostage crisis, another source said.

Washington sent a team of hostage-handling experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to Zamboanga, a port city near Basilan island, where the hostages were brought by the Abu Sayyaf.