"We have no such information on guerrillas," the Japanese embassy's press attache, Shuhei Ogawa, told reporters when questioned about a report in a Tokyo newspaper.

Asked if any money had been requested in return for the two soldiers, Ogawa said, "No, nothing.

He was commenting after Mainichi Shimbun reported Sunday that Philippine rebels are demanding 232,000 dollars ransom in exchange for "delivering" the two men to Japanese authorities.

Mainichi cited a Japanese businessman who reported their presence.

The newspaper did not say if the pair were being held against their will and did not identify the rebel group.

On Saturday Ogawa said Philippines national police had warned Japanese diplomats, who are in this Mindanao island city to try to confirm reports about the old soldiers, not to go into the mountains because of the rebel threat.

The area is home to both the communist New People's Army and MILF, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The Muslim rebels are known to have conducted kidnappings for ransom.

Hundreds of journalists have descended on this city, 1,300 kilometersmiles) south of Manila on Mindanao island, since the reports emerged on Friday. Diplomats have warned Japanese correspondents not to accept offers from people claiming to know the location of the "stragglers" and offering to guide them into the mountains.

Japan's Kyodo news agency, citing government sources, earlier named the men and said they were in their 80s.

But the two old soldiers have not been seen.

An officer of the Japanese welfare and labour ministry, Suminori Arima, was expected in the southern Philippines soon. Before leaving Tokyo on Saturday, he said he hoped to meet with the old soldiers.

The welfare and labor ministry, which handles veterans' affairs, said Friday it had heard from Japanese people in Mindanao about possible former soldiers on Mindanao who wanted to return to Japan.

Ogawa said the embassy delegation in General Santos had been in contact with a Japanese businessman identified as "Asano," who has been their contact person in attempting to find the two soldiers.

He declined to give details on their discussions with Asano, saying only that the emergence of the two Japanese from the jungle had been prolonged because "there are things we have to work out."

On Saturday Ogawa downplayed reports that the two old men may be hiding in mountains near this port city, unaware that World War II ended 60 years ago.

"You must understand that we get these reports all the time," he said.

Japan attacked the Philippines, then a US colony, hours after its 1941 air raid on Pearl Harbor, leading to a brutal occupation before US-led forces recaptured the islands.

Japan was stunned in 1974 when former imperial Japanese army intelligence officer Hiroo Onoda was found living in the jungle on the Philippine island of Lubang. He did not know of Japan's surrender 29 years earlier.

After being repatriated, Onoda emigrated to Brazil.

Another former Japanese soldier, Shoichi Yokoi, was found on Guam in 1972. He returned home and died in 1997.

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