"I'm being set up and forcibly being implicated," he was quoted as saying in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Estrada, detained at a military hospital on corruption charges after being deposed in a military-backed uprising in January 2001, said the government should instead look into the grievances aired by the nearly 300 soldiers who joined Sunday's 22-hour rebellion.

"They should address the grievances instead of looking for someone to blame."

The rebel soldiers, who seized an upper class apartment in the Makati financial district on Sunday, denounced alleged corruption in the armed forces which they said affected logistical support to troops in the field fighting communist and Muslim insurgencies.

They also accused a top intelligence officer of masterminding a bomb blast in the southern city of Davao earlier this year and blaming it on Islamic militants as a ploy to get more US military aid.

Estrada, who has insisted he remains the country's legitimate leader, said the allegations were "serious."

Police on Monday arrested Ramon "Eki" Cardenas, junior minister during Estrada's presidency, in a raid on the suspect's home in a plush village near the Makati high rise where most of the mutineers had made their stand.

Police seized military uniforms, automatic rifles and a huge cache of firearms from the home of Cardenas, who denied involvement in the attack.

"I don't know anything about that," Estrada said, adding he had not seen Cardenas for a while. "It's very clear that (the alleged evidence) was planted."

He said the Arroyo goverment was fomenting further disunity by blaming him and other opposition politicians for the failed coup, which ended before midnight Sunday after the soldiers agreed to return to barracks.

"Such machinations, far from resolving the series of crises now gripping our nation, could only make matters worse. This is another cheap and crude attempt by the government to gloss over and bury the legitimate demands of our young officers by twisting the issue, by blaming the whole affair on my camp."

Arroyo on Monday vowed to hunt down the political backers of the failed putsch and her aides said the plot involved encouraging civilians to gather around the building where the rebel soldiers had holed up in hopes of stirring a larger uprising that could force Arroyo to step down.

The soldiers "did not act by themselves alone," Interior Secretary Jose Lina said.

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