Intelligence reports showed there are only about 70 Abu Sayyaf rebels operating in the southern island of Basilan currently, and about 300 in nearby Jolo island, the military said in a statement.

"The group is now sustaining itself through clan or family support as it continues to evade military pursuit in the hinterlands of Basilan, Sulu and Zamboanga peninsula," it said.

"The intensified and sustained military operations against the ASG (Abu Sayyaf group) since year 2000 has significantly reduced its strength as they continue to be on the run."

The rebels however are still capable of launching terrorist activities in "tandem with other rebel groups such as the MILF," the military said, referring to the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Formed in the 1990s by Afghan-trained Muslim firebrand Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani ostensibly to fight for an independent Islamic state in the south, the Abu Sayyaf has reached a peak of about 1,000 members.

Defense experts say the rebels had degenerated into a loosely organized bandit group after Janjalani was gunned down by police in 1998 and succeeded by his younger brothers.

The rebels in 2000 made international headlines when they kidnapped dozens of mostly Western hostages in in two cross-border raids into Malaysian resorts across the sea border from Jolo.

A second batch of hostages were seized the following year, including three Americans, two of whom died in captivity.

All hostages seized from Malaysia were freed in batches over a span of eight months, allegedly in exchange for huge sums of ransoms by military account.

The last of the hostages seized in 2000, Filipino Roland Ullah, was recovered in Jolo island last week amid suspicions that he had changed sides.

Ullah was flown into the southern city of Zamboanga on Wednesday, escorted by military intelligence agents and prominent Jolo figures but was swiftly whisked away to a military camp.

His body still bore numerous marks from insect bites and he avoided answering questions from journalists at the airport.

His escorts described him as healthy but frail.

Brigadier General Alexander Aleo, head of an anti-Abu Sayyaf task force, said there were still "inconsistencies," in Ullah's account of his captivity. He said Ullah admitted that he sometimes carried a gun at the Abu Sayyaf camp but said it was unloaded.

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WAR.WIRE