At the height of the standoff, the normally bustling commerical area in downtown Manila was transformed into to a potential battle zone riddled with live explosives and bristling with snipers.

But there was to be no explosions or gunfire. Shortly before midnight, the rebels surrendered quietly, offering only a few last words of defiance before trooping back to base, still carrying their weapons and rucksacks.

The drama began in the early hours of Sunday when heavily-armed rebel soldiers wearing camouflage uniforms and sporting red armbands took control the Ayala Center in the Makati district just a few blocks from the Stock Exchange.

The center contains a major five-star hotel, two large department stores and the Oakwood towers, a luxury condominium that is home to many foreigners.

After a day of tension, nightfall saw rebel snipers silhouetted on the upper floor ledges watching for any attempts to storm their stronghold by government troops wearing white armbands.

Wires to the explosives were strewn around the shopping mall. One of the rebel soldiers told passing journalists: "If you step on that (wire), it will explode."

Despite the danger, reporters flocked to the area, often stumbling over each other in the rush to get interviews with the plotters while avoiding tripping over the explosive wires.

The rebels insisted the residents of Oakwood were not being held hostage and around six hours after the siege began people from the complex emerged to board five buses out of the area.

Frightened expatriates, some clutching children, filed out escorted by the soldiers without speaking to reporters.

One frightened woman kept repeating: "Get me on the bus, get me on the bus."

Venezuelan national David Mendez said the rebel soldiers "were very kind, they did not harm us."

Thousands of Filipinos usually flock to the mall every Sunday, to shop, watch movies and eat at the hundreds of restaurants and food stalls.

But the bustle was replaced by silence as the military used armoured vehicles and trucks to cordon off roads leading to the Ayala Center.

Despite the cordon, many pedestrians could still be seen walking down Ayala Avenue, fronting the occupied shopping mall. Curious onlookers also gathered in small groups, watching the rebels across the now empty plaza.

As the seige unfolded, the group accused Arroyo and her top aides of selling munitions to rebels, of carrying out a series of deadly bombings in the south earlier this year and of planning to declare martial law in August.

But despite rambling speeches to the press in which they complained of military corruption and low pay, the rebel troops received little public support, with no other military units joining them.

Retired general Roy Cimatu was dispatched to persuade them to surrender peacefully as Arroyo warned that defiance would be met by an all-out military assault.

But just hours later, a smiling Arroyo announced that "the crisis in Makati is over. (The) 296 soldiers, including 70 officers, are standing down and returning to barracks."

A few minutes after her announcement, some of the rogue soldiers came out to the darkened shopping mall and began dismantling the booby traps.

To prove they had been serious, they opened a crate marked "high explosives" to show journalists the stacks of TNT sticks inside.

Some of the rebels broke into song and hoots of triumph as they departed. others looked dazed and uncertain, refusing to answer reporters' questions as they contemplated their futures.

WAR.WIRE